Shall We Begin?
by VanillaJasmine
Summary: With Khan captured and testing the crew and relationships of of the enterprise, his sights are set on causing trouble, particularly with Lieutenant Uhura. Will she be able to resist the rogue?
1. Chapter 1

The craft hummed to life with Kirk and Spock at the helm and lifted sharply off the shrapnel-embedded ground of Kronos.

Uhura set the communications system at nominal and punched in the auto-code to keep an eye on it. She left her seat and gathered the left out weapons, disabling them and putting them back in the locker.

She looked over to Kirk and Spock, who was intermittently watching her and his work station screen.

"Uhura, you okay?" Kirk asked her, a frown on his face and his eyes not leaving his screen.

"Yes, Captain." She replied, although she hadn't thought about how she felt until that moment. In fact she felt a little wired, still pumped with adrenaline from their Klingon encounter and capturing Harrison. She quickly recounted the events in her head, speaking Klingon after so long, almost being killed. She had never felt so terrified, so brave, so alive.

"Then would you go check on that son-of-a-bitch for me?" Kirk asked, snapping her out of her thoughts and absentmindedly pointed at the locker behind her, "Take a phaser, just in case." He trailed off.

She nodded, still thinking as she grabbed a phaser and set it to stun before heading through the small shuttle towards the guarded cell-room Harrison was in. She could have died talking to those Klingons alone. She revelled at her bravery, but then thought of the shot that saved her. She stood just outside the door of the room concealing the prisoner as the guard entered the key code to unlock it, it was a shot fired from Harrison that had saved her life.


	2. Chapter 2

Uhura tucked her phaser down the side of her trousers and stepped into the room.

Harrison was sat on a bench on the left side of the room. His appearance was rugged. He had a black Starfleet shirt on that he had been somewhat protected by his outer coat and trousers to match that were worn and slightly tattered from the fight. His large booted feet were squarely placed on the floor and he stared vacantly into the distance, past his scraggly hair that flopped over his forehead, as one of the extra members of the crew on the away mission shakily checked his vitals.

"You can go," Uhura addressed the crewman, "I'll take over."

The crewman shuffled about a little before handing Uhura the device and exiting the room. Uhura was no doctor, but she could check a persons vitals, so she proceeded over to Harrison and let the little device scan him.

Neither of them said a word. The machine blipped happily as all his signs were coming out perfectly. He was undamaged and seemingly unfazed. He watched her intently. She felt slightly uneasy under his gaze but determined not to let it show, she heightened her posture and stood squarely too him. His eyes analysed her as she did.

"Tell me," he spoke out, his voice deep and balanced, "What is your name and position?"

Uhura stopped and switched off the vitals device allowing silence to fall over the room. She hesitantly stared at him, the simmering intensity of his eyes steady upon hers.

"My name is Uhura," She said confidently, not braking his gaze, "And my position is Lieutenant."

Harrison raised his eyebrows slightly, intrigued.

"Lieutenant Uhura." He said, eyes flitting over her face. She could see there were more words behind his expression as he thought yet chose not to say them. She now doubted telling him.

"Harrison." She replied acutely with a false smirk. How dare this fugitive contemplate her name. He refocused his stare back to her eyes.

Silence hung between them and Uhura quickly busied herself in tidying up the medical equipment.

"Your vitals are fine," she stated, "And unfortunately it looks like you'll live to see another day; for now." She warned as she turned to face him from the other side of the room. A smirk appeared on his face and a flash of rebellion darted across his eyes.

She watched as he stood up carefully and slightly stretched, cracking his neck. She hadn't really noticed it on Kronos, because of the surroundings and the fighting, but he was big. He towered a good six-inches above her and his body was bulky and immaculately proportioned for his height. He pushed his dirty hair off of his forehead and observed her still.

"Does it bother you?" He asked. Uhura flushed at being caught staring at him, not that she thought anything of him, and quickly tired to regain her controlled demeanour.

"Does what bother me?" She responded,

"What happened back there, on Kronos." His voice rumbled as he took a step toward her. She frowned at him.

"I don't understand, what would bother me about it?" She asked boldly.

"Well it seems a little strange that the Captain would send out a lady - and a lieutenant at that, all on her own, to negotiate with dangerous Klingons." He eyed her.

"He didn't send me out, I chose to go out there." She snarled, insulted by his stereotypical implications, "Besides, I am the only one who can speak Klingon."

He nodded slightly at her, contemplating her words.

"Call me old-fashioned, I suppose."

"I can handle myself perfectly well." She snapped, swooping towards him, angered. His expression changed and Uhura tried to hold her own, yet they both knew that without his quick actions, that Klingon would have snapped her like a twig.

"I'm sure you can, Lieutenant." He replied smiling slowly after a moment, his dark tones and piercing gaze boring through her.

She stood up to him momentarily, trying to read this mans covert expressions before stepping back and breaking their heated stare. Harrison didn't say another word. He watched her quietly as he turned and sat back down on the bench. She took a breath, and after one last needle-like glance in his direction, she exited the room, allowing the door to promptly close behind her.


	3. Chapter 3

Uhura walked closely beside her Vulcan, following behind the team of armed guards surrounding Harrison and leading him through the Enterprise.

She was angry at herself, for engaging with the criminal. Telling him her name and command, allowing him to even speak to her! She gritted her teeth and sharply exhaled. Spock glanced at her as she did and she figured he could sense her mood. Spock had really shown his concern for her today, the recollection of his words cheered her up somewhat and suddenly all their previous relationship problems seemed to dissipate.

She stopped with him as the prisoner was led on. Spock watched her, taking note of the little smile that graced her lips. Nothing more needed to be said for now, so she simply stood elegantly on her toes and leaned up, giving him a short but loving kiss.

She left him and headed for a turbo-lift that would lead to the living deck. Maybe they will get through this together.

Changed out of her away gear and back into her crimson uniform and boots, Uhura was about to head for the bridge when she was alerted by the captain.

"Uhura, on your way back to the bridge collect the analysis report on Khan from the cells, please." Kirks voice cracked out over the intercom.

Khan? She thought to herself. Slightly confused, yet irritated at the thought of dealing with whoever he was again, she made her way across the ship.

The room was eerily quiet and expansive. The fugitive was in the cell on the far side of the room. He was stood within the box with his back facing the glass and hadn't seemed to notice her come in. She thought for a moment as she tiptoed across the floor.

"Khan..." She pondered aloud, staring at him. He was perfectly still, only tilting his head slightly toward the sound of her voice. She noticed he was in a clean uniform now with his black hair slick and tidy, showing his clean, military style cut. She continued to think aloud as she walked towards him,

"King. Prince. Nobleman. Chief." She paused and stopped a few feet away from the glass, Khan still with his head tilted, listening. "Ruler." She stressed the last one.

"Such grand meanings for a name a man like you doesn't really deserve." She sneered at him.

Khan turned to face her, a smirk on his face and eyes so sharp they could wound. Uhura stood expressionless, allowing him to try and infiltrate her exterior composition, and after a faultless minute, proceeded to collect the reports the captain had asked for.

As she did so, she never once felt Khans eyes leave her body. A tension started filling the room as she forced herself not to succumb to his stare. Suddenly, he spoke out.

"I have lived up to my name in many ways, Lieutenant," He growled his delayed reply, "Yet yours means freedom, but have you really thought about how free you are? Aboard this ship? Under the watchful command of Starfleet?" His baritone voice filled the room with unmistakable venom.

She stood with her back too him momentarily, and not allowing him to win another round, she headed for the bridge, analysis report in hand and smiling to herself. There was no way she was letting him under her skin.


	4. Chapter 4

Khan had been in the holding cell for three days now, and Uhura had kept away from him. Kirk assembled everyone of rank for a meeting on the bridge and in typical Enterprise fashion, an argument had broken out within five minutes.

"Captain, I do not think it is wise to trust this man." Spock objected strongly, "I believe in doing so it could jeopardise the safety of the entire crew."

"Spock we haven't got any other options," Kirk protested, "We can't take another pounding like that from Admiral Marcus, yet I have no idea what to do to prevent it." He sighed, exasperated, pacing the deck and running his hands through his hair.

"Then we must take what we need from Khan in the safest possible way." Spock argued, "Captain," he paused and walked towards him before continuing, "There are measures that can be carried out to make him talk." He advised quietly.

"I know, but we need more than words and information." He brushed off his comment, "We need skills. His skills. And as he said, he is 'better' at everything than we are."

Uhura rolled her eyes at the arrogance of the quote. Khans whole persona had radiated a certain superiority.

"There is no other way," Kirk concluded, after several moments of silence, "We utilise him, under guard." Spock was about to protest again,

"That's the order, Spock." The captain stated, heading for the turbo-lift, "I'm gonna go talk to him. Mr. Chekov," he called out, "Ship-wide broadcast of the decision, I want everyone on their toes."

Spock looked to Uhura and she could see him struggling to keep his annoyance at bay. He briskly left the bridge and she followed him. He walked fast causing her to almost skip to keep up,

"You have to trust him." She consoled him.

"Trust does not guarantee our safety." He spoke as he walked, "This man is dangerous and manipulative and I struggle to understand how Captain Kirk can see anything else." Spock stopped at the science deck doors and faced her, "Khan will use us and the Enterprise for his own purposes and gain, there is no doubt about it."

"Spock..." she stressed, trying to think of how she could make him see that they needed to follow the Captains orders and take a chance, putting aside logic. He waited for her response, but she couldn't find the words, as deep down, she knew he was probably going to be right.

He walked away from her, leaving her standing in the busy corridor alone with just her thoughts. It was aggravating how one-sided he could be. He just wasn't happy unless everything made perfect, logical sense.

Admiral Marcus' attack and the whole situation made Uhura think of Khans words. Right now, none of them were free. They had two options; sit and wait while repairs were made and be attacked again, or use Khan. Uhura hated to admit, but she didn't feel very free at the moment either; she seemed to be constantly having to tip-toe around Spock and watching how she phrased things in order to get through to him. It was exhausting.

By the evening, Khan had been released and allowed to reside among the crew on a few designated decks and rooms. An alert called Uhura down to the medical deck, where she found an irritated Kirk standing, arms folded, watching Doctor McCoy take blood samples from Khan.

Her presence changed the atmosphere of the room. Khans eyes immediately locked on to her. Uhura watched McCoy and Kirk, avoiding Khans luring gaze as best she could, she approached the Captain.

"That _boyfriend_ of yours," Kirk vexed, staring into the distance gritting his teeth and scrunching his hands in front of himself in a strangling motion. McCoy tutted a laugh and Khans gaze drifted between Kirk and Uhura from beneath his brow.

"You couldn't get through to him could you?" Kirk asked her calmly. She shrugged and shook her head.

"No, nothing I say seems to get through to him anymore." She sighed, feeling the burn of Khans stare intensify.

McCoy moved away from Khan,

"Right, we're done here." The doctor stated.

"Good!" Kirk tried to sound enthusiastic, "Then lets get to the bridge."

Kirk gestured Khan toward the door and he slowly got to his feet, silently eyeing the captain as he walked. He passed Uhura and let his gaze linger. She followed him with the Captain and McCoy behind them.

"Your patience will be a virtue to you, Lieutenant." Khan mused

Uhura didn't reply. She was unwilling to acknowledge him for she knew where these conversations led.

"Always a trait found among the best communication officers," he continued in his mahogany tones. "Yet getting through to a Vulcan is undeniably more testing than learning to speak Klingon, is it not?" He watched her from the corner of his eye. Silence fell between them and Khan smiled to himself. Uhura let her expression darken.

"There is so much more you could learn, Uhura." He rasped a whisper, "About how people think. About how to make your words _linger_ in people's minds." The way he spoke sent a shiver down her spine. Determined, she continued to give him the silent treatment. He closed the gap between them as they walked,

"Perhaps I could teach you."


	5. Chapter 5

Uhura sat up in bed, unable to sleep. She covered her face and yawned, wearily. Her entire evening had been spent arguing with Spock, trying to make him see reason. She had had to speak her mind, to tell him that she didn't feel she could speak freely to him anymore.

This had then led to the discussion of his constant reliance on logic to solve everything, and how difficult it made him to work with.

Of course, he couldn't see her side of the argument, not at all, it wasn't logical to criticise someone for being logical. By this time, Uhura had developed a headache and felt as if she was shouting at a brick wall.

She looked at the clock, 01:43am. Suddenly feeling suffocated by the four walls that enclosed her in her quarters, she had to get up. She pulled on a pair of soft sweatpants and a jumper for over her top and left the room.

The corridors of the Enterprise were quiet and less busy. A few people on the night shifts milled around from station to station, oblivious to her presence.

She travelled up a floor to the recreation deck, grabbed a coffee from the mess hall and headed to the lounge, looking for a place to sit in peace. A large armchair in the corner of the dimly lit room invited her to settle. As she did, she took comfort in being the only person in the room.

She sipped her drink and closed her eyes, trying to clear her mind of her argument and think about what the hell she was going to do next.

"That was quite a ruckus you had this evening." A voice purred out through the stillness of the room.

Uhura jumped, eyes flying open and almost spilling her coffee. She suddenly felt paralysed, glued to her chair. Her eyes frantically searched the dark room for the owner of the voice she knew to be Khans.

Bright blue eyes caught her attention from the right and Khan stepped out from the darkness. Uhura breathed and looked away from him, she really didn't want to deal with him right now.

"I don't want to play your games, Khan." She sighed, rubbing her forehead with her free hand before looking back up at him.

"What games?" He responded, "I was merely pointing out an earlier observation." He said calmly, allowing a small smile to creep onto his face.

Uhura sighed at him and he slowly moved forward.

"Mind if I sit?" He asked in a low tone, gesturing at the armchair opposite her.

"So what if I did, you'd still sit there anyway." She retorted. Khan smiled and quietly sat down.

"You deserve more recognition for your efforts, Lieutenant." He said after a moment.

"Why? When my efforts aren't getting me anywhere."

"Because you have determination, and the soul to try." His voice rumbled, "Unlike Mr. Spock."

"Spock does try." She defended him quickly, shooting Khan a look and getting caught in the blinding intensity of his eyes. "It's just it takes him time to put how he feels into words."

Khan held her stare, face placid but eyes racing, analysing her, having a thousand conversations of unspoken thoughts.

"Not that any of it is your business." She assured him, coldly. He briefly raised an eyebrow,

"It is when your argument has stemmed from a decision regarding me." He stated, reflecting her cool tone.

She brushed off his comment with a laugh and his gaze burned towards her.

"That is not even the half of it." She got to her feet, unwilling to delve into the details of her relationship issues with this man.

She began to cross the room when she felt Khans presence closely follow her.

"Perhaps you should give him a logical ultimatum?" He growled in her ear, making her stop in her tracks. "Make him consider his affections and learn to hang on to your _every word_."

Uhura's heart pounded in her chest. Anger rose in her as his words settled around them. This criminal was not worthy of telling her what to do, in any aspect of her life, especially not her relationships. She took a breath and turned to look at him, their faces inches apart as his eyes incisively searched hers.

"I don't take orders from fugitives." She whispered audaciously.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey Guys! Thanks so much for all your support and I'm so glad you're enjoying the story! :-) I generally ship Uhura/Spock but just thought this pairing was so irresistible and fun to write about! Thank you again and enjoy the chapter! :-) (note: I don't own anything and Star Trek into darkness isn't mine, obviously, just use stuff for reference)**

The Enterprise had been sat in dead space for two days now. Engineering crew had been working tirelessly to make necessary repairs and fixtures to give them a fighting chance against Admiral Marcus.

The USS Vengeance was watching them from across the galaxy, locked on to their position and awaiting their next move, hidden within the blackness of space.

The crew were assembled on the bridge 'bright and early' as the Captain had asked of them yesterday.

Uhura stifled a yawn as she sat at her station, facing into the room. She observed everyone as the last few people entered the bridge. Worry was the general appearance. Anxious eyes watched Kirk as he paced about his chair, contemplative expression on his face and sighing to himself.

Spock stood, observing Kirk and intermittently watching Khan, who was standing at an angle to the bridge and the view-screen, looking out into space.

Spock had barely looked at her this morning. She couldn't blame him, all she could remember was shouting and the look of disdain in his expression.

An electric-like pulse ran down her spine as she recalled the presence of Khan last night, his words, her audacity. He suddenly looked over to her from across the room, a hint of something in his eyes, almost as if he had felt it too. Her attention was drawn away from him when the Captain spoke out.

"Tell me everything you know about that ship." Kirk addressed the temporarily allied-criminal. Khan slowly turned his head, taking his eyes off Uhura so he was facing the Captain.

"It's a Dreadnought-Class," he began, his resonate voice filling the room, "Twice as big, three times as fast and far more heavily armed." He stated "A real warship and resourcefully designed. The entire craft can be operated by one man if needs be."

"Well that's just great," Doctor McCoy pitched, sarcastically, "Y'know Jim, you really have a talent for knowing how to piss off the guy with the super-sized, super-tech spaceship." He rolled his eyes.

"Captain, if what Khan says is correct, then an attack on that ship would serve no purpose other than to cause us inevitable retaliation damage." Spock added, logically.

Kirk looked about the faces of his crew for a moment, processing all their comments.  
Uhura thought as she stood up and stepped toward the deck.

"Sir," She began, "If we can't attack from the outside, maybe it would be possible to get aboard their ship somehow, stop them from within?" All attention was on her.

"Good," Khan complimented her, his eyes heated, "Finally someone providing a useful contribution." He stressed as he eyed Spock and McCoy. Uhura had to stop herself from almost blushing.

"Well it would be good, except we don't have enough power for transporter abilities." Kirk reminded them, "And I don't see any other way in." He shook his head and silence fell again. Spock looked at Uhura analytically.

"Everyone dismissed for now," the Captain disbanded them, "Except Spock and Mr. Chekov; you guys come with me to engineering."

The bridge emptied quickly of most of the personnel, everyone returning to their stations for work. Uhura sat at her computer, analysing the frequencies and checking all readings were nominal and that no one was trying to contact them.

At the moment, her job was fairly quiet. She set the switches at stationary and sat back in her chair. She could feel Khan staring at her but she was uncertain of his whereabouts. Rising to her feet, she removed her earpiece and confidently walked to the turbo-lift without looking back on the bridge.

Surely enough, Khan followed her, effortlessly moving across the deck and entering the lift, just as the doors slid shut behind him.

"I saw him watching you." Khan purred as the lift transported them through the ship. "Have you acted on what I suggested?" He said forwardly. Uhura stared ahead, irritated at his prying.

"Why do you do this?" She sprang the question on him as it dawned on her, "All you've done is try and manipulate me." She turned to face him, standing as tall as she could, "What do you want from me?" She sneered at him.

His head was turned, looking down at her and slowly, without breaking his watchful gaze, he moved to face her squarely. His trademark smirk graced his lips and Uhura was beginning to despise it.

"I want you to utilise all that intelligence you have," His low tones rumbled, "A woman as smart as yourself is capable of being so much more than a Lieutenant," His gaze intensified, "You deserve recognition for your efforts, you deserve to broaden your horizons."

She eyed him carefully, unsure of the reasoning behind all of this.

"You deserve someone who will value you." He breathed, inching forward, "In every way." His dusky voice ran through her.

Uhura searched his face, waiting for the smirk to appear and trying to figure out if he was serious.

The turbo-lift doors opened and she immediately broke their stare and walked away, leaving him standing there and her thinking of everything he had just said, and all the things he hadn't said.


	7. Chapter 7

Spock had become increasingly more distant from Uhura since Khan's capture.

A week had gone by now and he had made no attempt at understanding her side of the argument, nor had he shown her any kind of affection.

With the Enterprise still not going anywhere, Uhura found herself feeling increasingly more trapped, and her relationships weren't helping.  
She sat in her quarters, dwelling on her strange encounter the other day with Khan in the turbo-lift.

'_Valued. In every way.'_

The echo of his resonate voice and enclosing presence was etched in her mind. The way he looked at her. The way he always looked at her. Ever since they had met, his gaze had been intense toward her; he was constantly searching her eyes and there seemed to be a never-ending ocean of thoughts racing behind his.

The evidence was there, no matter how much she denied it; Khan wanted her.

The thought filled her with a mix of emotions, mostly a cold dread.

Why would this man be interested in her? He was a criminal! Uhura struggled to think of him in any other light, as she mostly thought of him in darkness; surrounded by dark thoughts of vengeance she couldn't possibly imagine.

In an odd way, it gave her inward confidence. He _wanted_ her. She smiled then tutted at herself, not allowing this to become a power-play.

Yet that was the problem, was it already a power-play? Was he simply manipulating her? Trying to ally her for purposes of his own?

She looked at her reflection in the mirror. This shouldn't be bothering her. She shouldn't even be thinking about him, but the attention from him was strangely appealing to her.

She was frequently getting nowhere with Spock, but Khan - he intrigued her. He fought back on her level, challenging her to one-up him, daring her to get a little closer with each of their encounters.

She sharply exhaled as her emotions stirred, a mixture of her love for Spock and an enticing lust from Khan.

The door alert broke the silence of the room and she glanced at the clock: 16:00. Shit. She had forgotten she had asked Spock to come and see her and now felt totally unprepared.

She opened the door and smiled weakly up at him, before stepping aside and allowing him to enter the room.

He stood facing her and waited for the door to close before speaking,

"You wanted to see me?" He asked her.

"Yeah," she sighed, brain frazzled by her previous thoughts, "I wanted- I wanted to see if you have thought anymore about the other day," she swallowed, "and Khan."

"If you are asking me if my opinion of the criminals alliance to our crew has changed, Nyota, then the answer is no." He stated, matter-of-fact. Uhura's expression hardened.

"Not even after the other day?" She asked, "He was useful, Spock."

"At providing information we could have easily obtained from Starfleet." He commented.

"Yes but he is here, available," She stressed, "He can give us a more detailed insight."

"Nyota," he began, "I would have expected that you of all people would have been among the last to side with the Captains judgments. Yet you also seem to value this fugitive in some way." He analysed her.

Uhura inhaled sharply, desperately wracking her brain for a comeback to prove to him, and to herself, that she does not 'value' Khan in any way.

"I don't not value him! He just," she paused, "He knows what to do and he knows how to do it." She argued. Spock started to walk in her direction,

"Precisely." Spock warned and passed her, leaving the room.

Uhura growled to herself, infuriated. Infuriated because she knew he was right about it all. Of course Khan knew exactly what he was doing and it would ultimately be consequential to them, but worse still, she did value him; there was something about him that fascinated her.

Feeling physically quaked by annoyance, she decided she would take a nice, calming shower, to distract her for a little while.

The hot water and soft fragrances soothed her mind, and she began to feel relaxed again.

As she rinsed her hair, she heard a noise from the other room. An alarm-like sound she did not recognise.

She quickly switched off the shower, hoping that they weren't suddenly under attack - which was always a possibility - and got out, grabbing a towel and tying it around herself just as the noise stopped.

Uhura sighed and proceeded into her room to check anyway.

Slightly shocked, she found Khan standing over the other side of the room, looking at photo frames and ornaments she had on top of her dresser.

"You have impeccable hearing, Lieutenant." He rumbled quietly, his back to her, "Although," he added, adjusting a picture frame to his right before turning to face her, "I probably should have concluded that, considering your job." He smirked, taking in the sight of her.

Uhura frowned and stood with her arms securely folded across her chest; partly out of irritation yet mostly to keep her towel from falling down.

"How did you get in here?" Her tone was spiky. He raised an eyebrow.

"I can get hold of the code for trans-warp beaming and onto a class-M planet in the far corner of the galaxy, and you want to know how I managed to get past a locked door?" He asked her simply, making her feel stupid. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Yeah, but you also triggered an alarm," she pointed out, "So maybe you better get out of here, before someone from engineering comes down to check it out." She snapped back at him.

"No need," he shrugged, "Because I disabled it and sent them and 'accidental trigger' alert."

Uhura let out an exasperated laugh and covered her eyes with one hand,

"Oh you," she smirked, "You are too good." She gave him an annoyed stare, eyebrows raised, truly amazed at his persistence and organisation. He stepped across the room.

"Why are you here, Khan?" She asked after a long pause,

"To see you." He said darkly as he approached her, eyes charged and scorching her exposed skin. She clutched her towel tighter and fought to quell an ignited feeling in her chest.

"How thoughtful," she chimed, "But I really don't want to talk right now." She informed him.

Khan raised an eyebrow again and the loathed smirk began to appear on his face. Uhura rethought her previous words and how they may have sounded, setting him up for a cocky-reply.

"I really want to be alone." She quickly intervened, before he had a chance to speak, "So please, just go." She stated, trying to keep control of her voice and stared past him, starting to feel cold. His expression fell placid and he watched her for a moment, thinking.

"As you wish." He replied, and exited her quarters without a second glance.

Uhura exhaled, staring at the place he had just occupied and slowly breathed, trying to calm her suddenly racing heart.


	8. Chapter 8

"All bridge personnel report immediately." The Captains voice cracked out sharply over the comm before shutting off quickly.

Uhura awoke, sitting up bolt-right and wondering if she had just dreamt the message, but the comm sounded again;

"Oh and Khan, you too." Kirks voice rushed from the speakers.

No, not a dream. She got up and dressed quickly, leaving her quarters and heading for the turbo-lift as she combed her hair with her fingers.

The lift doors opened and she was faced with Spock.

She eyed him whilst scraping back her hair and stood in the lift next to him. They travelled in an uncomfortable silence up to the top deck, and as soon as the doors reopened, she stepped out and walked ahead of him, letting her freshly tied ponytail swish with each irritated step.

The others were already on the bridge and Kirk, Khan and McCoy were standing around the subspace navigation screen, monitoring the outside space before them.

"They warped Sir, from stationary." Mr. Sulu informed, "I barely saw it, they were gone in the blink of an eye."

"Why would Admiral Marcus just disappear like that?" Kirk asked, staring at the screen in front of him.

"Maybe he got tired of waiting, or gave up because he couldn't get what he wanted." Sulu added,

"Or maybe he's gone to get a few buddies to help finish us off." McCoy remarked.

"Why would he do that when that ship is more than capable of destroying the Enterprise on its own?" Khan solemnly reminded him.

The Captain squinted at the information on the navigation system, looking as if he was at a loose end.

"Our scanners can't even detect which direction he went in." He stressed

"He most likely headed back to the construction base outside of Jupiter." Khan added, "Probably for supplies, larger weapons." He trailed off and anxious faces suddenly watched him.

"Captain," Spock stepped forward, "Wherever Admiral Marcus may have gone, it is highly likely that he will return, so I suggest we endeavour to be ready for him." Kirk stared at him, contemplating the depth in his words.

"Mr. Spock is right," Khan sided with him and Spock gave him a sudden, untrustworthy look, "We would be wise to be prepared for anything he may return with, to at least give us a fighting chance." His resonate voice announced. Kirk made a decision,

"Right, then it's all systems go," he began, "Chekov, I want everyone working to maximum potential to get this ship up and running," he walked across the bridge, "Khan, Uhura, Spock and Sulu; you come with me to the nearest outpost for supplies." He concluded.

Uhura suddenly felt a little nervous. The nearest outpost was on Rhea; a small planet that was in the gravitational sphere of Kronos, just on the boarder of Klingon space territory; and they wouldn't be happy if they discovered the same humans again in just under a week.

Swallowing her fear, she headed off the bridge with the others to prepare.

A few distinguishing features of Rhea was its hot and dim climate. Just enough light managed to reach the planet for it to be useful, but extended periods on its surface has been known to boil a man where he stands.

None of these features were a problem for the Klingons however.

Aboard the shuttle, Sulu and Kirk piloted whilst Spock hung over their shoulders, leaving Uhura to sit with Khan and a few tag-along personnel.

Khan sat opposite her, his head tilted down slightly and eyes staring into nothingness, clearly distracted by his thoughts.

She took the opportunity to observe him. His posture was perfect - it could easily make a statue jealous. His large hands were sat peacefully in his lap. Uhura studied them. They were bigger than Spock's hands and looked remarkably pristine, with no visible scars or bruises.

This surprised her considering she had seen the way he fought.

Her eyes briefly flitted onto his face. His expression still suggested he was miles away: a frown on his face and eyes transfixed to a spot on the floor.

As she watched him, she found herself unable to see any flaws in his face. He had extraordinary bone structure and skin that looked softer than hers.

She frowned, almost jealous.

As her mind began to drift, she started to wonder what his skin would feel like beneath her fingertips. How is expression would change under her touch and what emotions would course behind his eyes. The strength of the electricity she would no doubt feel from him.

She suddenly snapped out of her daydream when she realised she was being stared at.

Violently blushing, Uhura cleared her throat and fidgeted in her seat as Khans heated gaze only made her feel hotter. She cursed herself for being a caught unawares. What was she thinking?

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see him now smirking at her. _The_ smirk. She breathed deeply and was only too delighted when the Captain told them they had entered Rhea's atmosphere.

With the craft on the ground the group headed to the base uninterrupted.

Inside, it was muggy and humid. The walls sweated and the air was musty. The crew had to use flashlights to see what they were collecting, and after a draining twenty-minutes breathing in the hot, dusty air, they had collected a few rucksacks worth of parts and programmes.

Unbeknownst to them all, twenty-minutes had been more than enough time for Klingons to find out they were here.

Spock stopped them all as they approached the door. Swooping lights were flashing through the corridor from the fogged skylight windows.

"Klingons. Shit." Kirk whispered, "Alright, guard up and make a bee-line for the shuttle." He ordered.

With weapons engaged, the Captain signalled down from three before kicking the door down and running out onto Klingon infested plains.

Sulu followed him closely, and after a quick glance at Uhura, as did Spock.

Uhura stood with Khan for a moment, backs to the wall and eyes on the battlefield. She waited for an opportunity whilst desperately trying to hold in emotions that threatened to overwhelm her.

A glance. They are faced with god-knows-how-many Klingons, and all she got was a glance.

Khan was intermittently watching her and the outside,

"Are you alright?" He called to her over the din of the fight. She looked at his face and saw something she hadn't seen before; he looked concerned for her. She took a breath and engaged her weapon.

"Yes." She replied, not dwelling on it, and ducked out of the door, taking a left to shelter behind some debris.

The battle consumed her mind and her senses and she welcomed the distraction. The smell of ash and burning metal filled the air, paired with the sounds of phaser fire and the cries of fallen men. She just prayed that none of the cries came from her men.

The dim light of the planet called for quick reactions. On high alert, she dodged and evaded enemy fire and took her aim on several of the Klingons.

Mere feet away from the shuttle craft, she ran out of ammunition. Stealthily picking up a dropped Klingon machete, she took out an enemy through her own strength.

In the clear, she dropped the blade and began to run for the shuttle.

Suddenly, she was thrown off balance and flung sharply to the right, landing hard and scraped across the floor. She was struck by abrupt pain that seared through her left thigh.

Looking down, a large three-pronged knife was jammed into her leg. The pain was unlike anything she had ever felt.

Expression contorted in pain and vision blurred, she saw the outline of a Klingon approaching her and was petrified by the thought of facing imminent death, alone, with so many words unspoken and so many things unseen.

She struggled to move herself away, when the figure fell fast before her and bright coloured phaser fire filled the scene around her.

Squinting through the dust and colour, heart beating in her ears and thoughts blinded by adrenaline; pain overwhelmed her, swamping her mind and quickly, her consciousness.


	9. Chapter 9

_Heat. Dust. Noise. Agony. The blurred sight of a figure loomed over her, and suddenly; she was weightless._

The hum of machinery infiltrated the blackness of Uhura's mind.

Her body felt leaden, but she no longer felt pain. She was simply still, laying equably somewhere.

Gradually, she came to recognise her senses again.

The air smelt clean, yet stung the back of her ash-damaged throat. She was no longer sweltering and could feel a gentle pressure on the inside of her left wrist. As she listened, she began to hear voices she recognised.

Slowly, she opened her eyes and was blinded by the bright light of the Enterprise MediBay.

Doctor McCoy stood next to her, taking her pulse. She tried to sit up.

"No no, back you go." He directed her, placing his hands on her shoulders and easing her back down. She laid back and allowed him to finish scanning her, he then carefully held her arms and helped her sit up.

He shone things in her eyes as she tried to ignore him and look around.

Spock was standing solemnly at the end of the bed. He had a bandage around his forearm and a few cuts and bruises on his face.

He clenched his jaw, looking as if he wanted to say something.

Uhura wasn't sure how to proceed. All she could remember was the split-second glance he gave her before they faced the chaos of Rhea.

She studied his expression briefly before looking away to focus on the Doctor.

"What happened?" She asked, her voice croaky.

"You were hit." McCoy replied, reading her vitals.

This she knew. She looked down at her bandaged leg and was surprised at how much better it already felt. This puzzled her.

"Was it a deep wound?"

"Yeah, pretty deep," McCoy paused and picked something up from the table next to him, "We dug this out of you." He put inelegantly, showing her the monstrous-looking blade.

Uhura winced at the sight of it and blinked back the recollection of the pain, thinking of the wound again. McCoy put it out of sight.

"So why doesn't it hurt more?" She looked at him, confused.

McCoy paused, shuffling slightly, tension rose in the room and he shot Spock a look before answering her,

"Well," he began, caution in his voice, "I guess you can thank Khan for that." He said, glancing to Spock again then refocusing on her, "I guess you can thank him for everything." He drawled matter-of-fact, unable to keep the truth from her.

Spock glared at the Doctor and threw a last look at Uhura before striding out of the room without a word.

Her eyes followed him as he left, she now felt even more baffled by the current situation.

"Wh-?" She started, but McCoy interrupted by pointing at the nearly empty blood bag hanging near her head.

"Your transfusion," he told her, "You had lost a lot of blood, and the only way to stop us from losing you, was to give you some of the super-humans."

Uhura didn't know what to think.

"Didn't you ever wonder why Jim couldn't take him out? Why he never even got so much as a scratch?" He questioned for her, "Khans blood has phenomenal qualities."

He left her momentarily and the Captain entered the room. Apart from a few cuts and bruises like Spock, he looked fine.

"Hey." He exaggerated as he reached her, "You are looking a lot better." He smiled, and she weakly returned it.

"Yeah," she spoke quietly, "How is everyone else?" She asked after a moment, watching him.

"Fine, fine." He answered quickly, fidgeting and avoiding eye contact.

She stared at him. Uhura knew him too well to know when the Captain was hiding something.

"Kirk, what's going on?"

"What do you mean?" He avoided the question,

"Don't play dumb," she said, "Something is up, everyone's acting weird. What happened?"

Jim looked to McCoy for help who just raised a telling eyebrow at him. Kirk sighed and pulled up a chair.  
"All hell broke loose after you fell." He began, "There were still too many Klingons, but Sulu, Spock and I managed to make it back to the shuttle." He paused and Uhura waited patiently for more, worry creeping in at the lack of mention of Khan.

"Spock saw the Klingon who got you and naturally went after him; like some sort of animal." He stated with wild eyes and she felt her heart race at the thought of him defending her.

"By that time, Khan had re-appeared and was helping to keep the enemies away from you." He said, "Soon after, another warbird appeared and started firing on our craft. Spock was nearer the shuttle, and was inches away from being vaporised until me and Sulu dragged him inside." He paused and waited for a reaction, but Uhura didn't give him one. He let out a breath before continuing,

"Spock," he vaguely laughed to himself, "Spock was pretty mad about that," he implied, a clear understatement of his emotions.

"It was Khan who saved you." He admitted, "He picked you up, fought off the Klingons and managed to get safely to the shuttle." Kirks eyes widened and he shrugged, "Super-human."

She was astounded. Khan had saved her, again. She fought the redness threatening to inhabit her cheeks at the thought of how smug this would make him, and how feeble she would feel. Kirk began to speak again,

"But the fighting didn't exactly end after we left Rhea." He informed her, she frowned, "I have no idea what happened, all I know is I haven't seen Spock that angry in a long time, and Khan was on the receiving end."

Uhura read his expression and knew she had been the cause for the violence.

"Anyway, it was so bad I had them both thrown in holding cells to cool down."

This time, Uhura definitely blushed.

"You should talk to him." He suggested as he got to his feet. Kirk nodded to McCoy before leaving.

Stunned. Uhura felt utterly stunned and unable to comprehend what had happened.

She spent the next hour silently complying with one of the nurses as she helped her to her feet and ran checks and tests on her. It was remarkable how well she felt. Her leg felt as if it was only badly bruised, not recovering from five-inch blade spokes.

McCoy soon declared her fit to leave, and gave her an alert switch just in case before sending her to her quarters to rest for the night.

Uhura was content at the sight of her serene quarters. It was nice to finally be away from the prodding nurses and medical equipment.

She immediately washed her face and cleaned her teeth before changing into something comfortable.

Her mind raced as she combed her hair out in front of the mirror.

Spock had defended her. Spock had fought for her. Fought about her. Had he really been so angered by the fact that it had been Khan who got her to the shuttle? She needed to talk to him.

The door alert bleeped out across the room and her heart skipped, hoping to see him.

She opened it and before her stood an unscathed Khan.

Suddenly, her thoughts were only filled with him. She looked at his face, his eyes were for once, still. They looked tired and concerned, bright windows that at that moment, led deep into his mind.

She stepped aside and allowed him into the room.

Uhura watched him standing for a moment, back to her, and walked around to face him.

He had saved her again, but the seriousness of it caused him to contain his usual smugness. The reality of it slowly dawned on her, because without him, she really would have died; if not on Rhea but back here on the Enterprise from blood loss.

Khan gazed at her, not his usual intense stare, the one that preceded the smirk, but with a certain tranquility. His expression was softer than his usual guarded front.

Returning his calm visage, she moved closer to him; slowly standing on her toes and shrinking the gap, as she leaned up and kissed him.


	10. Chapter 10

Khan's lips moved slowly against Uhura's as he responded to her kiss.

He placed his hands on her lower back and held her close to him.

Uhura ran her hands across his broad shoulders and rested them on his neck, feeling herself sinking into his touch, relishing in the intimacy between them.

She stopped and abruptly broke their kiss, avoiding his eyes.

This was wrong.

She pressed her lips together, the sensation of his kiss still lingered upon them. She could feel him looking at her,

"I'm sorry," she whispered, stepping out of his hold, "I can't, this isn't fair."

She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples anxiously. What had she done? Why did she do that? Why had it felt so good? She sharply exhaled.

Khan stood unmoving and watching her.

"To whom is this unfair?" He asked her quietly, his voice rumbling through her. She thought for a moment before looking at him,

"To each of us. Especially Spock." She told him. He bit his lip and nodded, turning his face away from her, concealing his thoughts.

Uhura gently touched his cheek, bringing him to face her again, his eyes a stirring pool of unsaid things. She took a breath, composing herself as best she could.

"I have to figure out what to do." She tried to console him. Khan took her hand in his and held it.

"Then I hope you do so discreetly," he said after a pause, "I would like to avoid baring the brunt of Spock's anger again."

She sighed, releasing his hand and sat on the edge of her bed,

"What exactly happened?" She asked him attentively, and gestured for him to sit next to her; he complied.

"Spock had tried to get to you on Rhea," He started, "But too much got in the way, and we were running out of time." He thought for a second, and Uhura cut in,

"Another warbird appeared." She filled in, "The Captain told me that much." Khan nodded and continued,

"When I got you aboard the shuttle there was little we could do but tie your wound and reduce the blood-flow." He recounted, "Spock had been pulled aboard earlier so by the time he could help you he was very insistent. The only way he would listen to what I had to say was when I told him you would die if he didn't." Khan stared at the floor,

"Back on the Enterprise you were rushed to the MediBay, while Kirk, Spock and Sulu had their cuts tended to and I was scanned. We lost the few others who had tagged along." He added. Uhura felt saddened, it was always unpleasant to lose crew members.

"McCoy then approached us." He paused, "He informed us of your poor condition and also said he had analysed and tested my blood sample; he believed it could give you a fighting chance." Uhura watched his expression as he hesitated,

"That's when an argument started," he said, "Spock was adamant that a transfusion from me could be damaging to your system. Kirk and McCoy wasted precious time fighting with him, so I put an end to it; I hooked myself up to the transfuser and withdrew the blood you needed."

She felt moved by the boldness of his actions as she waited for him to continue.

"Kirk and Spock left during this time and after it was completed, I rejoined them on the bridge, only to be greeted by the full wrath of your Vulcan boyfriend." He said with resentment.

Uhura didn't understand. Surely Spock would be logical enough to see that what Khan did was necessary.

Khan shifted slightly and lifted his top a little on his right side nearest her, showing her a bruise that had formed.

"And it was some fight, considering I am not easily damaged." Uhura pulled an sympathetic face,

"Kirk did say you two ended up in the brig." She responded, realising the severity of it.

Khan stood up and reorganised his clothes. As he did, Uhura got to her feet and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Thank you." She said, thumbing the hem of her top. He gazed at her a moment,

"You're welcome, Uhura." He returned. She briefly smiled to herself,

"Nyota." She said and his expression changed, "My first name is Nyota." She had forgotten that he didn't know.

He looked into the distance, contemplating it.

"Nyota." He repeated, she liked how her name sounded wrapped in his velvety tones. He focused on her face again and smiled from learning it.

Uhura blushed slightly. She sighed,

"You should go, I need to rest," she paused, "And think."

"I understand." He answered, and she walked him to the door.

"Goodnight." She said as he left, leaving her with a million new emotions to arrange.

Uhura rose early and dressed into a clean uniform, before heading out to the MediBay to be checked up on and have her bandage changed.

Her vitals were fine and blood pressure normal, she didn't really feel any different having Khans blood coursing through her veins.

She sat down as McCoy removed the bandaging on her leg, preparing to redress it.

"Whoa." He said, calmly bemused and staring at her leg. She looked down.

Amazingly, her thigh had completely healed. A small scratch remained in the place where a gouged wound had occupied not twenty-four hours ago.

"That's amazing!" She blurted out.

"You're telling me," McCoy replied, "The man is like walking miracle-cure." Uhura laughed and stood up,

"Well you are free to go," the Doctor said, "Just keep an eye on how you feel."

She nodded and walked out of sickbay with a spring in her step.

With her errand out of the way, she refocused on the main occupant of her mind. Walking over to the nearest computer, she asked it to locate Commander Spock and it informed her that he was still in his quarters. With no time like the present, she headed there immediately.

She pressed the door alert and it swiftly opened, allowing her inside.

Cautiously, she tiptoed in and found Spock sat peacefully at the table in his room, reading something on his PADD. She cleared her throat,

"I'm not disturbing you, am I?" She asked. He set the device down and got to his feet,

"No, Nyota, not at all." He replied. She walked up to him and hugged him without hesitation. After a moment, he responded.

"How is your arm?" She released him to look at the bandage, running her fingers over it.

"It is fine." He informed her, "How is your leg?" He asked, a hint of something in his voice she couldn't quite distinguish. She stepped back and showed him.

"Fascinating." He observed, annoyance creeping into his expression. She wondered about his arm.

"Did you get that on Rhea?" She questioned, pointing at it. He stood for a moment, staring at the injury.

"No." He breathed. Uhura's expression twisted,

"From Khan?" She asked carefully, knowing she had to be right.

Spock was silent. He stared past her.

"Yes." He said with an edge of frustration, "I imagine you have been informed of everything."

She nodded slowly and he caught her eye again,

"From whom?" He asked, brow slightly furrowed, she swallowed,

"A little from Kirk," she started, "But mostly from Khan..." She trailed off.

"Then I cannot be sure you know the truth." He retorted coldly. She sighed,

"I know that I got hit, you protected me, Khan got me aboard the shuttle and gave me a blood transfusion and that you two had a fight, apparently initiated by you." She stated the main points confidently, "Am I correct about everything?"

He looked at her for a moment,

"Yes you are indeed correct." He acknowledged her,

"Good. Then can you explain to me what is going on with you?" She addressed him directly. "I know we have been fighting recently, and that you don't trust Khan, but what was the tipping point, Spock?" She gazed into his eyes, searching for some form of answer.

He breathed deeply and tried to avoid her eye contact.

"I could not help you." He whispered after a long silence. "I could not get to you on Rhea and there was no way I could have helped you to recover." He put simply, unusually unwilling to elaborate.

She understood his answer, it was true, and it was not like he could have given her a blood-transfusion.

"Helplessness is one of the least favourable emotions I have ever felt." He said, "Then made worse by witnessing another succeed where I could not."

Thinking about his words, and feeling empathetic, she suddenly realised where his reactions stemmed from.

The last time that she could recall him feeling helpless was when his home planet was destroyed, and when he lost his mother.

Uhura suddenly felt horribly guilty.

She was torn. Torn between a man who cared but had trouble showing it, and a man who cared when he shouldn't.

She embraced him tightly again, dubious about how to proceed and uncertain of how she felt towards either of them anymore.


	11. Chapter 11

**THANK YOU so much for all the love and support you are showing me and the story! Your reviews and reads really mean a lot to me and I am so glad you are all enjoying it! Sorry for such a late update, been busy with my final exam but I shall endeavour to keep updating as regularly as I can! Much love to you all and enjoy the next chapter! :-)**

The Enterprise heaved suddenly to the right and began to feel as if it was falling, which was impossible.

Uhura hit the floor of the bridge with a thud. As she scrambled back into her seat, a hailing frequency reached them and overtook her systems, automatically opening up a communications channel and displaying onto the view screen.

With only three other personnel currently on the bridge with her, she found herself in charge and face to face with Admiral Marcus.

Unable to tear her eyes away from the screen, she instinctively reached for the comm switch,

"Captain," she spoke out as confidently as she could, "You need to get to the bridge, now."

"Already on my way." He replied, and she flicked the switch off again.

She stepped forward to the centre of the bridge, catching her balance as the ship lurched again.

"What are you doing to the Enterprise?" She growled angrily as she straightened up next to the Captains chair.

"That is not any of your concern." The Admiral replied dismissively.  
Kirk ran onto the bridge and over to her, briefly placing his hand on her shoulder to check if she was alright. She nodded and stepped back slightly, scowling at Marcus.

Soon, other personnel had gathered. McCoy and Spock had followed in after the Captain and were stood near to him, staring at the man on the screen; Spock hadn't noticed her yet.

Khan strode into the room from the turbo-lift on her right. He watched Marcus before immediately looking around and catching Uhura's eye. His expression was his normal, unreadable one, yet his eyes swam troublesomely.

She looked at him worriedly. The Admirals temper had been triggered by Khan and his actions, and only further fuelled by Kirks heroic conscience.

She studied his face, wondering if it was going to be the last time she saw it, as she remembered how Carol Marcus had been so easily taken from their craft. Her chest tightened at the thought of this being their last encounter, because she knew that given the chance, Marcus would have him killed on the spot.

She caught her breath as it hitched in her throat.

Spock looked over to her hearing the sound. Concern flashed through him when he noticed Uhura looking at Khan.

She broke her gaze with Khan as Spock moved toward her, his eyes now fixed on the fugitive-turned-ally.

She watched as he stood protectively beside her. It made her feel small, so with a glance, she walked away from him and over to her station, leaving him to eye Khan.

"I demand to know what you are doing to my ship, Admiral." Kirk ordered, clear irritation in his voice.

"Nothing!" Marcus assured him, "Merely assessing the repairs you have been making." He spoke with a hint of bitterness.

"He has us in some sort of tractor-beam, Sir." Sulu informed the Captain. Kirk stuttered,

"A tractor-beam?" He addressed Marcus, awaiting an explanation.

"It's just to make sure you stay put." He said mock-assuringly.  
"Shields up." Kirk ordered. The ship bleeped negatively in response to the action.

"We can't." Sulu told him, confused.

"Captain, I think they are directly jamming our signals," Uhura said, "I'm locked out of everything and this channel wasn't opened by me." She pointed between the comm and the screen.

"I believe it to be partly caused by ze tractor-beam, Sir!" Chekov provided some evidence for her.

"What a sharp-minded crew you have there," Marcus patronised, "It'll be such a shame to lose all that intelligence." He smiled wickedly and sat back in his chair.

Kirk clenched his fists, trying to control himself,

"If you harm my crew..." He began, fury rising in his voice and knuckles turning white.

"Well if you hand over the fugitive..." The Admiral retorted,

"How can I be sure you won't blast us anyway?" Kirk snapped back,

"You can't!" Marcus said, "But taking the chance is better than not complying and facing the certainty, isn't it?" He gave him the choice.

Kirk breathed harshly and looked over at their criminal. Khan shook his head in silent reply. He thought for a moment,

"I will only hand over the criminal if you promise to leave us, and give Khan a fair trial." The Captain stated his conditions, "He has the right to that and my crew have the right to safety; they have done nothing wrong."

"That man has the right to _nothing_!" Marcus yelled, "And as for you and your crew," he shook his head, "By not following orders you are on the same page as he is!" He paused, "You interfere Kirk, and its about time you learnt what the consequences are."

"I interfere when I know something is wrong!" Kirk fought back.

"D'you know why that man was woken up?" The Admiral asked, "To be a weapon! Nothing more!"  
The crew looked to Khan anxiously who was now slowly pacing toward the screen, stare fixed on Marcus.

"I kept my half of our bargain." Khan growled "But if you want war with the Klingons, and everyone else, you will have to start it yourself because _I will not be your minion_." He spat furiously.

The Admiral winced at his declaration.

"Fine." He began, "I've had enough of this-"

He was suddenly cut off, and the Enterprise's controls flickered back to life.

"Sir, we're being hailed by a minor vessel." Uhura stated, opening the channel.

"Captain!" A bubbly Scottish voice filled the room,

"Mr. Scott!" Kirk exclaimed.

"We don't have much time. I've temporarily disabled this bad boy,"

"Wh-" The Captain was puzzled, "You're aboard the Vengeance?"

"Yes! Now you've probably got the best part of twenty-minutes before they get back online!"

"That's more than enough time," Kirk thought quickly, "Get to an airlock!" He ordered,

"Uhura; keep a channel with Scotty. Khan; suit up, we're gonna space-jump. Bones and Spock come with me."

It was suddenly all systems go. The Captain, Spock and McCoy headed off the bridge and Khan walked back to the lift.

Heart racing, Uhura set the channel and quickly followed after Khan, entering the lift.

The doors closed and she looked at him. Unable to think and unsure of why she even followed him, but something in her was screaming for her to be near him.

She didn't know what to feel. She was scared for his life yet couldn't understand why this bothered her so much. His seemingly cool exterior angered her. She desperately needed to see his human side, to disprove Admiral Marcus' accusatory remarks; to prove that his sole purpose for being alive was not just to wreak havoc.

She stood close to him as she resolutely searched his eyes, her expression wavering.

Without hesitation, Khan kissed her, calming the rage of doubts that flooded Uhura's mind.

His kiss was passionate with a sense of urgency behind it, as his hands found their way onto her body and held her tightly.

Breaking away, she held his face in her hands and committed his touch to memory, running out of time.

His expression was open to her now, and he reflected her concern.

"Come back." She breathed, "I jus-, Please." She whispered, overwhelmed.

He clenched his jaw and nodded earnestly.

The lift opened and he unwillingly released her, stepping out into the corridor and walking away without looking back.


	12. Chapter 12

Communications with Kirk and Khan had been lost a week ago and the Vengeance had disappeared.

Each day, Uhura's job was to establish contact and in the days past so far, she had failed.

She was becoming consumed by the stress of the unknown and her fear for the people she cared about.

Spock had been of no comfort to her, even when he was temporarily off duty. His position as acting captain had engrossed his mind and he could not switch off. The few conversations they had were less spoken from the heart, and more analytical or about work.

Uhura stood in Spock's quarters during a rare few minutes of down-time, watching as he busily paced the room, PADD in hand and thinking aloud.

"Logically, we must assume the worst has happened." He stated,

"However, there has to have been the consideration of Captain Kirk and Mr. Scott's positions in Starfleet that played a factor in any decisions made by Admiral Marcus."

Uhura exhaled and shook her head. Spock's inability to think without logic made him unable to understand the concept of compassion, or rather lack of it, in terms of the Admiral. The Vulcan in him currently clouded his mind of any human emotions or tendencies; forgetting that in reality, Marcus wouldn't have used logic or even given a damn about Kirk and Scotty's positions in Starfleet, and would have killed them purely because they had gotten in his way.

She opened her mouth, about to say this to him, but then stopped herself, remembering she had already tried, umpteen times.

Exhausted, she had had enough.

"Can you stop?" She asked, a hint of irritation in her voice, "For five minutes."

Spock looked away from his PADD and up at her, confused.

"Take a break, come and talk to me, please." She offered out a hand to him, "I can't take much more of all this."

He tucked the device under his arm and walked over to her. She smiled tiredly at him and ran her hands down the back of his neck.

"I'm just so worried about them and its getting overwhelming." She sighed and stood as close to him as she could, trying to get him to respond to her, needing some form of contact and support from him.

"Taking a break will not quell your anxieties," he said formally, "It will only encourage them to grow as you dwell upon them." He stepped out of her hold, thoughts rushing through his eyes and an aura of work surrounding him, "Finding them and answers is the only way to eliminate this feeling."

He walked toward the door. Shock and anger rose in Uhura. This was too Vulcan, even for him. He had missed the point entirely.

"Stop!" She called out angrily just as he reached the door. He did as he was commanded and turned to face her again.

"Is there a problem, Nyota?" He asked her obliviously. She scoffed in disbelief.

"I'll say!" She threw her hands in the air, she was going to have to spell it out. "What about us, Spock?" She stared at him intently,

"After what happened a few weeks ago on Rhea, I thought you cared again, but it just vanished!" She exclaimed, "And now you can't even spare me five minutes!?"

She studied his face, feeling hopeless. He thought for a moment,

"I do care for you Nyota," he said, "But as of late, with the presence of the fugitive and these events with the Admiral, our relationship has not been of high priority." He watched her, "Right now we have to be logical."

"You're nothing but!" She snapped angrily. Silence fell between them as she waited for a response from him, anything to show her that he could empathise with her humanity.

He said nothing.

"I think _we_ should take a break, our relationship." She stated, "Because I can't be with you like this at the moment." She waited again for a reply.

"Understood." He said quietly and plainly, studying her briefly before leaving.

Uhura furiously walked to her quarters.

Her anger was overcome by tears as she stood alone in her room.

It hurt. How could he be so dismissive? How could she be so stupid in thinking he could see any differently right now? All of her troubles overtook her as she let herself cry. Her worry about the others, her failure to establish contact, confusion and being banished from Spock's comfort and the tearing pain of the unreachable contact with Khan.

She prayed he was not dead. He could not be dead. She needed him.

She needed him and was beginning to understand why. His attention to her had been unfaltering, even through all the difficulties he had faced since they met; he had made an effort for her.

She tidied her face up and made her way back to work. She had to show a strong composure, even if she was crumbling inside.

On the bridge, everything was as it was. All personnel were still busy at their stations and Spock worked expressionlessly at the navi-comm screen.

"Captain," Sulu called out, "There is a craft approaching."

"Identify it in long range." Spock commanded and the vessel was brought into magnified view on the hulls screen.

"It is unmarked, Captain." Chekov informed,

"It's headed straight for us." Sulu said, alarmed, as a collision alert bleeped at them.

"They are requesting docking permission, Sir." Uhura said professionally. Spock thought as the seconds on the collision alert ticked down.

"Allow them permission to land and I want security down at the docking bay immediately." He left the room and Doctor McCoy followed after him.

She granted the craft access and went to catch them up.

In the docking bay, the little craft swiftly landed. It was all black and had the number 371 spray painted on the sides in grey.

It's doors opened and security surrounded it. Suddenly a very roughed-up Kirk ran down the slope, phaser in hand, accessorised with various other dangerous looking weapons and looking exhausted. A similar Mr. Scott followed him.

As they approached, Uhura's eyes stayed glued to the craft and mind began to swim, as she waited for Khan to appear.

"Captain." Spock addressed him, "What happened? Where is the Vengeance?"

"It's gone, and so is Khan." He panted, fatigued, "He's dead."


	13. Chapter 13

Kirk and Mr. Scott were taken to the MediBay immediately. Both were badly beaten up but luckily no internal or serious damage had befallen them.

They sat on separate benches as several doctors and nurses tended to them, bandaging wounds, scanning and running checks whilst being ordered about by Doctor McCoy.

Spock and Uhura stood at the edge of the room, out of the way but watching intently.

Uhura's eyes may have been focused on the busy people, but they were empty of attention.

Her mind was numbed and body felt hollow.

Khan was dead. The Admiral had killed him; taken his life, his thoughts, his feelings and in doing so, crushed any hopes Uhura had held towards him.

She relived the memory of his expression, the last look he ever gave her. His bright blue eyes shone with knowing anxiety and the heat of his fingertips left an impression through her clothes, demanding to be remembered.

She had seen so many thoughts behind those eyes, but had heard few of them spoken. There was so much left unsaid between them, questions unanswered. She never found out why he seemed to care for her, and now she never would.

Never again would she feel the burning intensity of his gaze as he watched her, eyes boring into her skin.

A welcome shiver ran down her spine at the recollection of it all. He had made a lasting impression; awakening a curiosity and capturing her attention, causing her own feelings to develop for him.

Uhura's attention was slowly brought back into the room as Kirk began getting impatient, insisting he was fine and swatting away nurses holding scanners and other medical items.

McCoy stood squarely in front of him and held the Captain's face still as he ran one last retina scan.

"Okay, you infant," the Doctor said as he put away the device, "Stop squirming and start telling us what happened."

Kirk was only to happy to comply.

"When we landed in the Vengeance, Khan, Scotty and I only managed to get through one deck taking out their personnel." He thought, "There were way more crewmen aboard that craft than we had anticipated. They must have been recruited, either from Earth or the construction hanger, when they disappeared for a while a few weeks back."

"We were caught, thrown in the brig, stripped of our weapons and communicators and beaten up on a regular basis under Marcus' orders. They wanted information about Kronos, the Klingons, Rhea and the Enterprise."

"Which we didn't give 'em, by the way." Scotty chipped in gesturing at himself and Kirk.

"Yeah, and as far as I know, Khan didn't tell them anything either. Besides, being beaten up wasn't much of an ordeal for him." He rolled his eyes and rubbed the side of his rib cage.

"Anyway, Khan was really useful with information of the ship, and after a few days we had got together a plan of how to get out of there." He continued, "It was fairly easily put into action; Khan was still the strongest out of us so did most of the fighting. We made our way across the ship to the nearest weapons locker."

"I thought it all went pretty well, fighting our way along, until we got to the bridge." He paused, "Marcus had gathered the rest of his security in the mean time and outnumbered us. He demanded we give him the information he needed, but when we didn't comply, open fired."

"They overpowered Khan and rendered him defenceless." He swallowed, "Marcus personally shot him four times, point-blank, and ordered him to be thrown off the ship, disposing of him onto the nearest M-Planet."

Uhura felt her stomach tie in a knot as he described the event, she held herself together.

"By that time, the Vengeance had severe internal damage, verging on catastrophic from the rebounds of the firing. Scotty and I managed to make it through the ship and to an escape pod through the chaos."

"It was only then we realised we were not in the same space anymore." Scotty added, "We spent a good few days trying to plot a bloody course to find you again!" He chirped, his usual humour sank unnoticed into the silence of the room.

Kirk got to his feet, a clear thoughtful expression on his face,

"I have reason to believe that Khan is still alive." He said suddenly, attention snapped onto him and Uhura's heart leapt at the words.

"Captain?" Spock asked, confused.

"If Admiral Marcus had been one-hundred percent sure he had killed him, then why didn't he just flush his body out into space? Why would he go to all the effort to chuck him into a pod and onto an M-Class Planet?" Kirk looked around all the interested faces,

"He knows about Khan, and 'what' he is," he reminded them, "I think he knew he wouldn't be able to kill him, but needs him to be out of the way."

Kirk thought, getting into the zone. He started towards the door and was followed eagerly by the others. Uhura could barely hear him over the sound of her heart beating in her ears.

"Marcus knows he has crossed the line, majorly, and that there's gonna be trouble." He spoke as he walked,

"So if there is going to be a war against the Admiral; I want Khan on our side."

On the bridge, everyone was back in action.

The Vengeance had not reappeared, and was unlikely to turn up any time soon, giving them a window of opportunity.

Kirk and Mr. Scott retraced their travel and compiled coordinates in the direction they had come from.

With the help of Sulu, Spock and some navigation personnel, they soon tracked down the M-Class Planet they were looking for.

"Captain," Mr. Sulu announced, "Coordinates 52,75,21,13; just outside of Saturn, M-Planet, Erebus."

Kirk sat back into his chair and nodded, letting an avidly tense silence fall over the room.

"Let's punch it."


	14. Chapter 14

The minutes dragged slowly and painfully, like nails digging into skin, carving their way torturously down flesh.

Uhura sat blankly at her station, staring out of the hull window and focusing on the rushing blue sparkle of warp speed.

"Okay; away team lets get kitted up." The Captain announced, and Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu and a few other personnel swiftly got to their feet to follow him.

The Lieutenant removed her earpiece and joined them. She faced a troubled Kirk.

"Ah, Uhura, uh..." Kirk began, shuffling nervously, "Look, don't take this the wrong way," he said with caution, she slowly raised an eyebrow, "But I don't think you should come down to Erebus with us. I don't want to risk you getting hurt or re-opening old wounds."

"What wounds?" She asked and Kirk glanced down at her pristine leg before brushing off her comment,

"That's not the point," he said quickly, "It could be dangerous, Erebus is a dense jungle planet so who knows what could be down there."

Uhura could barely believe her ears. She would not be cast aside and deemed unfit from one accident! She'd man her own damn shuttle and go by herself if she had too. Besides, Kirk wasn't exactly one to talk; he couldn't go anywhere without getting beaten to shit.

"Then we'd best be on our toes." She remarked and followed the others off the bridge before he could protest.

With the Enterprise in place above Erebus, the team stood patiently on the transporter pad waiting to be beamed to the surface.

Spock eyed her suspiciously. She ignored his stare, until he spoke out.

"Is it wise for you to be coming on the mission?" He echoed Kirks previous words in a more logical phrasing. "Considering the injury you sustained previously off planet?"

"I'm fine Spock. And I'm going." She snapped, not dignifying his questioning by facing him.

Kirk watched them awkwardly, noticing the atmosphere, as he stepped onto the platform,

"Right, 'live or die' hey, Scotty." The Captain smirked.

"Haha, very funny, stealing my material." Scotty muttered jokingly. An engineering personnel interrupted,

"Beaming you down in 5, 4, 3, 2,"

Energy encircled them and soon their mechanical surroundings fizzed out and were replaced by the dense, thick jungle of Erebus.

It was later in the day on the planet, and the climate was humid, but still felt significantly cooler than Rhea. It was a different kind of heat; less musty and heavy and more sticky and sweat-inducing.

The plant life was phenomenal, Uhura had never seen leaves and trees so big, and had never felt so small because of nature. It was as if they were miniature.

Spock busily processed information of the planet on a scanner device.

"There are 4,568 complex life-forms inhabiting this planet." The device informed them.

"Well this should be fun." McCoy drawled and rolled his eyes, "Y'know I hope your right about Khan." He jabbed the Captain in the arm,

"You've broken your own record, Bones!" The Captain retorted sarcastically, "We've been here less than five seconds and you already hate it." He smiled smugly at him, getting another eye roll and a sigh from the Doctor.

"Captain," Spock began, "The device shows that approximately 4,560 of the life forms are native to the planet; leaving eight that are not."

"Great! Breaking it down already." Kirk said, "Single them out, and we'll go looking for them."

The device found that the 8 non-native life forms were focused to the north and the north-east.

After a long walk toward the north, they split into groups; Kirk, McCoy and Spock in one, and Uhura, Scotty, Sulu and a few other personnel in another.

Uhura and her group headed to the north-east, slicing their way through dense jungle undergrowth and quietly avoiding the eye contact of inhabiting animals.

"We should be standing right on top of something..." Scotty mused. He frowned at the device in his hand and turned on the spot, looking about for signs of life.

"Let's split up a bit." Uhura said, "Just in the surrounding area to search; meet back here in five minutes."

The crew nodded and headed off in various directions through the foliage.

Uhura thought as she walked, not allowing herself to get her hopes up. Kirk had a hunch about Khans life, and while his reasoning was believable, there was still the very real possibility of them finding Khan dead, or not finding him at all.

She stopped a moment at the thought, and leant on a nearby tree to steady herself.

As she regained her balance, she looked about, and something caught her eye. Something in the distance was catching the setting sun and glinting in her eyes.

She approached it, finding it to be a small shard of metal that had lodged itself into a tree trunk.

She carefully pulled at it and managed to wiggle it free. On closer inspection, she could see the edge of some grey paint, similar to the style that had been on the side of the craft Scotty and Kirk returned to the Enterprise in.

Clutching the metal, she turned about. He must have landed around here. Landed badly.

Fear filled her as the likely-hood of his survival suddenly looked very bleak.

She walked further and began to find more shrapnel and pieces of craft. Stopping, she sent out a signal from her device to all of the others, telling them of her location and tracking her so they could regroup.

The chunks of craft got larger and soon enough, Uhura found the pod. She paused, looking warily at it before proceeding any further. There was no sign of Khan anywhere and the craft didn't look so much like it had crash landed; more like it had been ripped apart by something.

Her heart sank.

The sound of approaching footsteps caught her attention and restarted her heart. She looked about searching for the direction of the noise.  
Suddenly, Kirk and the others swiftly appeared from the foliage around her, stilling her quaking mind.

"Jesus." McCoy stared at the wreckage. "There is no way he would have survived, Jim."

"There are still a few life signs in this area." Kirk said, determined, "Everyone look around."

The sun was gradually setting, and dusk was enclosing around them.

Uhura switched on her light source to aid her search. That's when she noticed. A piece of material was tied to a branch in front of her.

Quickly, she freed it from the wood, feeling the material to be that of Starfleet uniform.

"Khan?" She said loudly, and then felt a little self-conscious, almost as if she were being watched.

A tree stood ahead of her. It's roots were large and above the ground, standing like walls in the earth.

Darkness fell between them, sheltering and shutting out the light from the jungle floor, casting huge shadows, yet there was something else sat in amongst the darkness.

She tip-toed forward, free hand hovering over her weapon and the other gripping her torch, as she closed in and the light illuminated a familiar figure.

Uhura caught her breath in a gasp as she stared through pooling tears.

Khan sat slumped against the roots base, one arm sprawled along the floor at his side and the other laying across his stomach.

He was a defeated shell of his former self, and Uhura wasn't sure he was even alive.

Courage filling her, she rushed forward and dropped to her knees beside him.

"Khan?" She whispered, a shaky hand reaching out to touch his face.

Groggily, he shifted his head slightly and his eyes flickered open. They were pale and bloodshot, all the spark and intensity lost from them.

His eyes found hers and she frantically studied his look. He was weak and distressed; it was the kind of look that exposes a person of their innermost feelings.

"You're going to be fine, okay?" She sniffed and carefully got to her feet, "I'm getting the others."

Setting her device tracker back on, she ran out into the early darkness of the new night to find the others, and was soon greeted by McCoy and Sulu.

"He's down here!" She called out and they swiftly got to him and the others eventually followed.

A deafening screech suddenly ripped through the air. Everyone froze.

Kirk looked about them, before gesturing to Sulu, Uhura and Spock to follow him to investigate.

Weapons ready, they crept over the jungle floor, peering through the blackness as they went.

Suddenly, fire illuminated numerous pieces of foliage ahead of them. Uhura held her breath as the owner of the blaze came into view.

A gigantic creature stood across the jungle before them. It could only be likened to some kind of reptile, but fire-breathing, and with about twelve eyes, and claws the size of the Enterprise.

"Run run run!" Kirk yelled to them and without hesitation, they complied.

"Kirk to Enterprise!" He shouted into his device, "We found Khan! And some kind of monster! Get us out now!"

They made it back to the others with the creature closing in on them.

With the Enterprise not responding, they gathered in form around McCoy who was analysing Khan in order to protect them.

They open fired on the beast and it wailed in pain, but did not fall.

Feeling sure she was facing certain death, Uhura braced herself but began to see light and energy.

In a flash she was back aboard the Enterprise, flushed and panting. Spock, Sulu and Scotty were with her.

"Where are the others!?" She demanded as she stepped of the platform and strode toward the transporter crewman, who were frantically pressing buttons and reading screens.

"We can't lock on! Everyone clear the pad!" A crewman said.

She stood with the others, waiting. Anxiously staring at the transporter and longing for the buzz of energy.

The comms in the background bleeped negatively, red lights flashed through the room and the seconds ticked passed, as McCoy, Kirk and Khan failed to appear.


	15. Chapter 15

Uhura anxiously twirled the little piece of ripped Starfleet material between her fingers as she silently paced her quarters.

She looked down at it, feeling the coarse cloth texture in contrast with the soft fraying edges, and prayed that Khan was going to pull through.

Her relief had been short lived after the transporter had eventually rumbled into action with the help of Mr. Chekov.

McCoy had rushed Khan to the MediBay, yelling out medical orders for large quantities of morphine and every kind of antiseptic they had, and Kirk had followed after them with gashes branding the left side of his entire upper-body.

Uhura had noticed McCoy give one of his senior medical officers his 'prepare for the worst' look, as he handed Khan over to be cleaned up.

She screwed her eyes shut as the image of the Doctors face kept flashing through her mind.

She sighed and looked at the clock, she really needed to get back to the bridge. She had asked Spock, who was temporarily Captain again, if she could take five minutes and it had now been eight. He will have no doubt been counting in the back of his mind, pin-pointing her absence to the millisecond.

She gently tied the piece of material around her wrist and knotted it twice, before heading out to the bridge.

The hull was quiet and the atmosphere felt distinctly solemn.

Spock was working away with a few other crewman at the navi-comm, as Mr. Scott recounted as much detail about the Vengeance as he could.

They were trying to establish its course and figure out what may have happened to it after Kirk and Scotty had escaped.

"It's no use Captian," Scotty said tiredly, "The whole ship is virtually untraceable. The only person who would have some clue of how to find it is Khan."

"Using Khan is, at this moment, not an option." Spock retorted. He noticed Uhura had re-entered the room and briefly watched her. She unconsciously ran her fingers over her cloth-bracelet before sitting back at her station.

"Then we should wait until it is an option." Scotty argued,

"We do not have time to wait for him as the Admiral could already be tracking our location."

Scotty sighed, slightly exasperated, and tried to think.

The lift doors swooshed open and McCoy entered the room, eyes shadowed and expression firmly set, as he eyed the other crew and made his way over to Spock.

Uhura got to her feet and stood at the edge of the bridge watching McCoy, mind racing blankly, unable to think of anything.

"Doctor, do you have a report?" Spock asked him. McCoy exhaled,

"Jim is gonna be fine," he started, "Though he won't be in a minute as he's not accepting any pain killers and has turned to booze for pain relief instead." He rolled his eyes and paused for a moment, "And Khan," he thought, "Khan we're not so sure about."

Uhura tightened her grip on the comm in front of her, feeling just about ready to tear screaming out of her own skin at the uncertainty.

"The point-blank phaser fire has almost pulverised his insides, yet it probably would have been fairly easy for a guy like him to recover from, if he hadn't been gotten by something else." McCoy shook his head, "We think that creature may have attacked him when he crash landed." He lowered his tone.

"That would certainly be an explanation for the extreme wreckage of the pod." Scotty agreed, "But how would he have escaped it?" He puzzled. Spock frowned.

"Well he barely did." McCoy put, blankly, "He has gashes worse than Kirks and they're infected. He was stuck down there an awful long time from a septic point of view."

Silence fell between the officers as they waited for more information.

"He's on everything we can give him and been put in a temporarily induced sleep." He said, "You'll have to wait until he wakes up to talk to him." McCoy's expression grew concerned. "If he wakes up."

The Doctor left the bridge again and Spock stood, his brow twitched as he thought.

"I suppose we should go and talk to Kirk then," Scotty said, "Before he drinks too much and renders himself inert."

They passed Uhura to leave. Spock momentarily watching her but she did not look at him. She was glued to the spot, attention captivated by nothingness as she thought.

_If he wakes up._

By the end of her shift, there had still been no word of Khan.

She headed up to the mess hall to get some food. Not that she was hungry, but she had to eat something, she couldn't afford to lose her strength.

As she walked along the corridor, Spock approached in the opposite direction from the recreation lounge. He looked irritated. She stopped him, willing to lend an ear.

"Get anywhere with Kirk?" She asked as he stood before her. He stared past her.

"No." He said frustratedly. "Alcohol consumption is not known to aid a persons memory. In fact, it does quite the opposite."

She smiled slightly at his bewildered expression, knowing he didn't understand why humans felt the need to partake in drinking.

"Perhaps you can talk to him tomorrow," she said optimistically. "Khan might even be awake by then." She blurted out and immediately regretted it, her eyes darted to the floor.

Spock shot her a look. She could feel him studying her face so met his gaze again, trying to mask any feelings toward Khan he may have picked up on.

He looked about her, eyes flitting down to her wrist that was accessorised with the material. His gaze fell away.

"Perhaps." He said, and after a further moment of analytically awkward silence, he walked away.

Uhura gritted her teeth and cursed as she walked fast to the mess hall. He definitely suspected, if not completely figured out, her feelings now.

After forcing herself to eat something, she headed for her quarters.

Standing in the lift, her thumb hovered over the living deck button, but she could not press it. She bit her and hesitated, before pressing the button for the deck which led to the MediBay.

Nerves grew in her stomach as she made her way down the hall. She had seen McCoy with the others in the rec-lounge and knew he was temporarily off duty.

The bay doors slid open and she walked in, eyes scanning the room and immediately falling upon Khan, who was laying in a bed attached to various machines at the back of the bay.

It was quiet, so she tip-toed across the room toward him, knowing she shouldn't really be there.

Khans skin was tinted grey and almost transparent. He looked calm, his expression peaceful as he slept. She dreaded to think of the state he was in under that placid exterior, how he must be suffering.

She breathed and stepped closer to the edge of the bed, slowly allowing her fingertips to hover above his arm and follow the line of muscle down to his hand, gently grazing his skin occasionally as she moved.

"I'm sorry, but you can't be in here right now." A voice said, scaring her half to death and she stepped away from Khan.

She turned and was faced with a stern looking Cadet, armed with a clipboard.

"I know," she whispered, feeling stupid for getting caught out, "I'm going."

She swiftly left the room, the cold sensation of Khans skin lingering on her fingers and her mind swimming.

He was strong. He needed to be. She needed him to be. He has to wake up.


	16. Chapter 16

Khan's condition had been slowly improving over the past few days, but he had still not woken up.

To Uhura's secret delight, McCoy had relaxed the rules surrounding Khan, letting the senior officers come in and check up on him. Unfortunately, this proved to be a battle for her; she had to control herself so she didn't sit permanently by his side, heart fluttering at any twitch in his expression.

Her regular duties were a helpful distraction, along with the fact that she was pretty sure Spock was on to her, especially after their encounter in the corridor the other night.

Busy at her station, the Captain strode purposefully onto the bridge, immediately asking for everyone's attention.

Kirk bounced about like his old self, despite him still recovering and getting stern looks from McCoy, he was insistent on taking his usual charge.

"Right then!" Kirk said, standing in front of the view screen addressing the crew, "The Admiral still hasn't made an appearance, and we can't waste any more time waiting for Khan to wake up," he began, "We have to get back to Earth."

"Earth?" Sulu asked, confused, "I thought we were trying to hunt down the Vengeance?" Kirk shook his head,

"Not anymore, what good will it do? It would only endanger us all again." He paced the deck, "I say we get back to Earth and warn the rest of Starfleet of the Admiral and his intentions."

"Are you delusional man?" McCoy asked, "What if the Admiral is already back there, waiting for us to return? Ready to cuff us all and kill Khan in the process?"

"Doctor McCoy makes a good point, Captain," Spock agreed with him and Bones shot him a dazed look, "It is also certain that the rest of Starfleet would not believe our word over that of the Admirals, even if he had not yet returned to Earth." he paused, "It would be seen as an act of treason against the federation."

"We have to try!" Kirk argued back, "If we don't, there's gonna be all out war! Besides, we have Khan as evidence of the Admirals actions."

Glances were exchanged around the room.

"You really think they are going to believe, or even listen to, anything that Khan might have to say?" Scotty asked, bemused.

"Yes, especially if we can all back him up." Kirk said, "He was right, people. None of us can deny that, fugitive or not." Silent agreement filled the room.

"If we can just get them to listen, for even five minutes." He stated, "An entire crew, making a stand; they can't kill all of us!"

"Marcus could." McCoy retorted, stumping the Captain and turning the atmosphere cold.

"What other options do we have?" He argued, "It's either this, or wait around for the Vengeance to find us and attack us again, putting us right back to square one and the Admiral in the clear for declaring war - and we can't hide out here in space forever!"

The long silence was compliant.

"Okay, he's right." Sulu agreed, and the others followed. Even Spock gave a small nod, seemingly unable to differ.

The Captain remained composed, retaining his usual smart-ass comments.

"Thank you." He said, "I want the whole ship informed and prepared to go by 18:00 hours."

The inter-comm bleeped, distracting their attention.

"Doctor McCoy, Captain," a voice began, "Please report to the Medical Bay; Khan has woken up."

Nobody could speak, and after a moment, Kirk replied.

"On our way." He left briskly with McCoy, recruiting Spock, Uhura and Scotty with a glance along the way.

Uhura stood with Scotty and Spock at the side of the room, watching as the nurses brought the Captain up to date and McCoy ran checks on Khan.

Khan was sat on the edge of the bed in Starfleet trousers and shirtless, with bandage strips down the left side of his torso. His expression was stern as McCoy scanned him. He did look a little better; more colour had returned to his skin and it was no longer tinged grey.

Uhura impatiently played with the material on her wrist, fighting the urge within her to not race over to him, to gaze into those electric eyes, to hug him, kiss him. How she suddenly longed for his touch.

McCoy finished scanning him and handed the equipment over to a cadet,

"How are you feeling?" McCoy asked, Khan raised an eyebrow at the question,

"Fine." He responded, "Though I've had better days."

"Well your vitals seem normal, for you," Bones said, being passed an injector and proceeding to jab Khan in the neck, he winced, "This'll ease any pain and give the last leg of your recovery a boost."

Kirk waited a moment, as if it would make any difference to how Khan was feeling, before asking him questions.

"How much do you remember?" The Captain asked,

"Everything." He replied, plainly.

"Really?"

"Yes." His eyes drifted from Kirk's and fell upon Uhura's.

"What happened on Erebus?" Kirk asked, Khans attention turning back to the Captain.

"My pod crash landed and the commotion attracted the attention of some creature."

"Lizard-like, twelve eyes, claws bigger than a spaceship?" Kirk interrupted,

"Yes." Kirk lifted the side of his top to show Khan his scars.

"Yeah we met him." He stated,

"The creature tore my pod apart. I was lucky that I had managed to get out just before it attacked, and was only clawed after it pursued me. It did eventually give up when I hid amongst the tree roots." He paused thinking,

"How did you find me? How did you find Erebus?"

"By retracing our steps after we escaped Marcus," Scotty pitched in, "We searched the area where the Vengeance had been when it dumped you, and fortunately, Erebus was the only M-Planet around Saturn for light years."

"Since then Marcus has gone; in the time it took Scotty and I to get back to the Enterprise and then to Erebus." Kirk told him,

"And we have no clue where." Scotty said, "We thought you might have some ideas about what that ship would do when it was in that much of a state?" Khan thought,

"It would head back to the Jupiter hanger for repairs; but if its been as long as you say it's been then not even I could be sure of its whereabouts now." There was a pause.

"Then we go ahead as planned," Kirk said, turning to the others.

"As planned?" Khan asked,

"We are returning to Earth to expose Admiral Marcus to Starfleet, but we are gonna need your help to bring him down. We will back you up, you were right about him." He explained and Khan eyed him, cautiously.

"Are you sure you know what you are doing, Captain?" Khan rumbled.

"Yes I'm sure." He responded strongly. "No more sitting around being prey to that guy. We head for earth in two hours. Prepare yourself as best you can."

"Understood." Khan thought as he replied.

Kirk ushered everyone out except Bones and Khan.

Uhura reluctantly stood, gaze fixed on Khan before picking herself up and leaving, feeling relieved. He had woken up.

After tending to her station, Uhura had time to prepare herself.

The gravity of the upcoming mission was slowly dawning on her as she approached her quarters. This was going to be dangerous and could even cost some of them their careers, or lives.

She got to her door, and as she punched in the first three numbers, felt a presence behind her and a shadow envelope her. She stopped and turned, a smile spreading across her face to find Khan stood close to her.

The intensity had returned to his bright blue eyes and Uhura never imagined she would have missed it so much.

His hand slowly reached around her to the keypad and without taking his eyes off hers, he pressed the last digit of the code, unlocking the door to her quarters.


	17. Chapter 17

The door slid shut behind them and Uhura fumbled with the lock code as Khan's hands roamed her body and lips met her neck.

Her breathing quickened as she finished the code and turned to face him. She kissed him with passion and urgency; the past week of tension and worry for him, combined with her flatlining relationship with Spock and lack of physical affection poured out of her.

Eventually she broke their kiss and held his face in her hands, looking into his eyes.

"Are you alright?" She asked him hurriedly, the words substituting a thousand different thoughts as she searched his expression,

"Yes." He replied,

"We don't have much time."

"One hour and twenty-seven minutes." He breathed, and continued their kiss, arms encircling her.

Uhura ran her fingers through his hair, bringing him closer to her, willing his hands to touch every inch of her body.

They didn't need to speak, there was nothing left to say for the moment and what they needed now went beyond words.

Clothing was removed and the bed covers thrown aside until there was nothing left between them but skin and the sheets.

Khan's fingers blazed over her skin and he left no part of her unnoticed. His lips explored and his touch teased every sweet spot on her. He memorised the contours and the feeling of her body and relished in her soft moans and expressions of pleasure as she melted beneath him.

Uhura matched his rhythm and the intensity of his touch. Not letting him defeat her, she changed their position, moving on top of him. Carefully avoiding his bandaging, she trailed kisses along his torso all the way up to his shoulders while circling him, and biting along his collarbone, eliciting dark groans and harsh breathing in response.

Their bodies tangled with each others in a passionate mess of pure need. Moving and enticing and overcome by the bliss, Uhura felt as if she would have been happy there, with Khan forever, but what seemed like all too soon, chest caught in rapid rise and fall and fingertips digging into his skin, she came undone around him. He closely followed her and they used each others bodies to muffle their escaping sounds of pleasure.

They lay together, half under the sheet. Uhura enjoying the sight of him in her bed.

She ran her hands over his chest, noticing a small patch of writing on his skin over his right rib cage. Not seeing it before, she sat up slightly to look at it:

**Fleet A-243 KHAN  
Cryo: 617-875-39**

"What's this?" She asked as she ran her fingers over the letters. He glanced down.

"My cryonics number." He said, "Three-hundred years ago, when light-speed travel and warp drives were not around, the only way to prevent dying from old age when traveling through light years was to be put into cryostasis." Uhura rested her chin on her hands and listened intently,

"Cryonics was first tested out in the late twentieth century, and developed into the twenty-first, with being frozen after death an option for people who had the money." He paused, "It was later developed with advanced technology and medicine, to allow a person to not have to have died to be frozen. It was then picked up by space scientists and astronauts, before being used quite widely in early Starfleet."

Uhura had heard of cryonics before, but it was intrigued to find out more details about it. It had sort of been glossed over by history after warp speed was figured out.

She watched him, his eyes roaming her body and settling on her wrist. He slowly moved his hand and touched the tied up material.

She smiled and suddenly felt a little silly, she had forgotten she was still wearing it.

"Oh," she laughed softly, "Its just-"

"Part of my shirt." He smirked slightly back at her and she playfully hit him.

"I found it on Erebus, your marker." She ran her fingers over it, brushing with Khan's, "It's been holding me together until you woke up." He smiled at it, trailing his fingers down her arm,

"The want happens before knowing," he murmured, "Desire before logic."

Gently, he pulled her on top of him and kissed her.

Eventually, Uhura broke away and sighed, checking the time.

"Forty-five minutes." She said, "We had better get up." Khan hummed and after a moment, reluctantly let go of her.

They changed back into their uniforms and she walked him to the door.

"You'd better go and make yourself useful somewhere." She pulled a face and pointed between them, "Unfortunately, this wouldn't look very professional."

"No. In fact very unprofessional. And almost scandalous." He smirked, gave her a quick kiss and let himself out.

Uhura straightened up her room and prepared herself as she was going to before her encounter with Khan.

Walking to the bridge, she thought through it all. There was no denying anything to herself about Khan anymore, but it did mean she had feelings for a criminal. This man who has murdered innocent people and manipulated Starfleet and god knows who else.

She stopped before the lift. Suddenly unsure of how to feel or what to think.

What if he was manipulating her? What if she has been part of some grand scheme? Used? No, he seemed so genuine. 'Desire before logic', he had said. He wouldn't.

But he would, and she knew it. It clouded the back of her mind.

She felt as if she had been kicked in the guts. She breathed and resumed her way to the bridge.

It happened, and neither of them could say it wasn't good, manipulating or not. She set it to the back of her mind for now, there was a more pressing mission at hand and she needed to be focused.

Entering the bridge, she was relieved to find Khan wasn't there yet. Neither was Kirk but the others were present and at their stations.

Spock watched her as she set up but was soon distracted by the Captain bounding onto the bridge, who was soon followed by Khan.

"Right then!" Kirk exclaimed, "Fifteen minutes to go." He looked about his busy officers and a statuesque Khan who waited patiently at the edge of the bridge. Kirk thought for a moment.

"Any suggestions for when we get to Earth?" He asked the fugitive.

"Be as direct as possible." He began, "Send communication out early of your intentions and reserve as much power in the mean time for your shields."

"Shields?" Kirk asked, not following. Khan rolled his eyes,

"Well you can't imagine that they are going to be very pleased, Captain. I believe, under the Admirals orders, they could either try to remove us all from this vessel or destroy it until we surrender or die." Khan said matter of fact. Kirks expression twisted.

"Mr. Sulu," the Captain began, "Reserve as much power as you can for shields so go easy on that warp drive." He sat in his chair, "Uhura, have a channel prepared for contact with Starfleet as soon as we reach Earths system." He paused before hitting the intercom switch.

"Crew of the Enterprise this is the Captain speaking," he began, "In a few minutes, we will be making our way back to Earth and to Starfleet to try and expose the Admiral."

Each face in the room was now watching him.

"I have no idea what will be waiting for us when we get back to Earth, so I ask that each one of you is prepared for anything, and in return, I will do my best to keep you safe. Kirk out."

Kirk sat back in his chair, and for the first time in a long time, if ever, the Captain looked nervous. He composed himself, and looked to his pilots.

"It's now or never."


	18. Chapter 18

Uhura worked tirelessly at her station as the Enterprise glided happily through space at a minimal warp.

She observed Khan out of the corner of her eye. He talked with the Captain, his usual cold exterior on show, not giving away any hints of the thoughts behind his eyes.

The ship unexpectedly lurched to a dragging halt; flinging the crew out of their seats, off balance and across the bridge. The space outside the view screen swam back into focus, accompanied by an ear piercing, metal scraping noise

"What the hell is going on!?" Kirk yelled from the floor as the lights flickered and alarms rang out.

Scrambling back to their seats, everyone frantically sought an answer.

"Captain!" Chekov called out, "Something has got us!" He stared at the comm screen, "It's displaying the same energy as the tractor-beam that was used by the Vengeance!"

Kirk gritted his teeth, and the officers held on as the ship jumped again.

"Captain, we're being-" Uhura began, but before she could finish, Admiral Marcus had taken over their view screen once again.

"This has _got_ to stop!" Kirk shouted at him, infuriated.

"I agree!" The Admiral yelled back, "I've had enough! Since you have already ran away from me once, then gone against my actions and found that _damn_ criminal again; I am literally going to _drag_ you back to Earth!"

"Why drag us back to Earth? Why not just blow us up now? You know you want too!" Kirk blurted out angrily. Spock gave him a look and he knew he had gone to far, but it was to late to retract it.

"Well that would be boring!" The Admiral drawled, "Especially now. To blow you up before for your petty crime would have been easy, satisfying; but now..." He sat back,

"You've done so much more since then, added to your criminal record, so I think it would be better for you all to face the rest of Starfleet; to be disgraced for your crimes before we dispose of you." Marcus stated with intent.

"What about you?" Kirk confronted him, "Are you prepared to be disgraced for your crimes?" He glared at him, "Because I will tell them. We will all tell them how you sabotaged the Enterprise to malfunction outside of Klingon space when we went to Kronos!"

"You used Khan and worse, your own officers as bait to try and kickstart a war! How much of Starfleet know your real intentions?" He shouted at him.

The Admiral laughed.

"D'you honestly think anyone will believe you over me?"

"No, not just me, but an entire crew." Kirk retorted, "There are over four-hundred personnel on this ship; they will have no choice but to listen to us."

The Admiral was silent for a moment. Kirk held his stare.  
"Alright then," he said, "We'll play it your way; good old fashioned destruction. But with a twist."

He smirked and the channel shut off. Controls were re-established on the Enterprise and the Vengeance had seemingly let them go.

Anxiety filled the room and Kirk jumped to his feet, looking around.

"What the hell did he mean, Jim?" McCoy panicked.

Before he had a chance to reply, energy began encircling the Captain and Khan. McCoy stepped forward, as if to try and grab him and Uhura leapt out of her seat towards Khan, who's eyes immediately found hers.

"Wait! No, no! Shields!" Kirk yelled uselessly as they dissolved from the bridge.

Uhura rushed back to her station, flicked on every channel and sent out numerous signals, desperate to re-engage with the Vengeance.

Spock assumed command right away.

"Mr. Sulu shields at maximum. Uhura, try and establish conta-"

"I'm trying! They aren't responding to anything!" She blurted out, words subconsciously controlled by panic. Spock looked at her and she cleared her throat, collecting herself, "Captain." She added calmly.

"Sir, they've locked weapons on us." Sulu said. Spock thought quickly,

"I want everybody to abandon this ship." He ordered, activating his seat-belt. Nobody moved, Sulu turned to him, also doing up his belt.

"No offence Captain, but I don't think so. We're not running from him again."

Spock looked at the stern expressions that outnumbered him.

"Then prepare evasive manoeuvres and tactical firing." He stated, "Red alert."

The Vengeance let loose on the Enterprise. Rounds of the highest calibre phaser fire relentlessly attacked the little ship.

With the skill of the crew, some shots were evaded, giving the Enterprise precious seconds of peace to put forward their remaining power and retaliate; yet they were ultimately losing the battle.

Abruptly, the Vengeance ceased. A few moments passed and no shots were fired. No one dared move, or breathe.

Uhura promptly checked all the channels and frequencies. Spock watched her, not needing to ask. She frowned and shook her head in response.

The tension of anticipation began filling the room as they were left unsure of how to proceed.

They were damaged, badly, and really couldn't face another round from Marcus. They had no choice for now other than to sit and wait, hands hovering over controls and switches and eyes unable to tear away from the black craft sat out in the distance.

After four sickeningly tense minutes of waiting, a channel was automatically opened up between the ships and displayed.

Everyone stared in disbelief at the screen.

Uhura slowly got to her feet, transfixed; eyes wide and open-mouthed.

A roughed up and bloody Kirk faced into the room, arms twisted behind his back and being held up at the scruff by a scowling Khan.

Kirk tried to speak but Khan tightened his grip and he winced.

"Now," Khan growled and stared into the room. Spock shifted uneasy in his seat, glaring at him, "I suggest you do exactly as I command. If you want to get out of here alive." His voice boomed.

Uhura couldn't believe what she was seeing. He couldn't be doing this.


	19. Chapter 19

**Hello again guys! Thank you for all the kind reviews - nearly 200! - and for reading and following. I'm really glad you are enjoying the story still! Enjoy the chapter! :-)**

Uhura couldn't tear her eyes off the screen or from the man who mere hours ago occupied her bed, and was a completely different person.

"What are you doing Khan?" Spock questioned him, "Where is the Admiral?"

"The Admiral is no longer a threat to you." Khan's voice struck out, "But I am." He paused,

"My request is simple. Your crew for my crew."

Spock glanced at Sulu, gesturing for their shields to be put up and frowned,

"Your crew? I do not follow."

Khan rolled his eyes impatiently.

"The torpedoes aboard your ship, Mr. Spock. All seventy-two of them." He explained, "I designed those weapons to be able to accommodate a cryonic tube, and inside each one lies a member of my crew." He paused at the thought.

"Admiral Marcus discovered me and took them, using them against me by placing them on your ship, hoping you would fire on Kronos, thus killing my family and starting a war."

"My surrender saved them, and now I want them back." He hissed.

Spock stared at him, expression unchanged. Kirk shuffled under the criminals grasp,

"No Spock, don't-" The Captain was silenced as Khan swiftly knocked him out.

"Now Spock, hand them over to me." Khan ordered.

"If I do, it will not guarantee the safety of the Enterprise." Spock stated, "I do not trust your word."

"Alright;" Khan began, irritated, "If you do not give me what I want, I will kill your Captain, destroy your ships life support and then retrieve the torpedoes myself. Your crew requires oxygen to survive, mine does not."

Uhura glanced at Spock, watching him analyse the logic in his statement.

"We have no transporter abilities." He replied.

Fortunately, I do. Drop your shields." Khan commanded. Spock hesitated before complying.

Khan moved from the screen and over to a comm, quickly working to beam his own crew off the Enterprise. He turned back,

"Thank you." He said, patronisingly.

"Now return our Captain." Spock ordered him.

Khan nodded, and pressed buttons on the comm once more. Kirk fizzled into the middle of the room, slumped on the floor and coming back around.

"No, no, Spock," Kirk said wearily as he rubbed his eyes and tried to get up off the floor, doctor McCoy and Scotty grabbed him.

"It seems your agreement with logical reasoning has betrayed you once again, Mr Spock." Khan addressed him, sitting in his chair and adjusting controls.

"With my crew safely at my side again, we can resume the work we were doing before we were banished; destroying inferior life-forms." He smirked. A alert chimed out on the Enterprise's comm,

"He's locked weapons." Sulu told them.

Uhura's eyes flitted between her crew members; a silently infuriated Spock and a hopeless Kirk. She moved forward slightly and stared at Khan, fear and betrayal filling her.

"It seems that you view the people who spared your life and rescued you as being inferior?" Spock questioned him drily.

"Yes, especially so, as what superior-minded being would be stupid enough to help a criminal?" He looked at Kirk, "Your conscience overwhelms you, Captain."

Kirk scowled at him,

"At least I have one!" He spat, and held himself up on the arm of the chair, "I showed you compassion, and now, after everything we get no mercy? We helped you!"

Khan thought for a moment, fingers hovering over the controls on the arm of his chair,

"Fine. I will show you mercy." He said, "For a price."

"A- a price?" Kirk said with minor disbelief, "Which would be?"

"Your communications officer." Khan growled and looked at Uhura, who's heart fell into her shoes.

Kirk shook his head slightly,

"What?"

"I will spare the Enterprise and the lives of your crew, if you give me your Lieutenant." He announced his terms.

All eyes were suddenly on Uhura. She stared at Kirk.

"No! No way!" Kirk shouted, not entertaining the idea, "Uhura is part of my crew! How do I know you won't just kill her then turn on us again!?"

"You have my word." Khan told him, seriously.

"Bullshit!"

Silence fell in the room as Khan's heated stare fought with Kirk,

"I gave you your chance." He rumbled, "As if you'd be able to stop me anyway." He smirked and pressed a button on his armrest.

Khan's words suddenly clicked with the crew. Spock jumped to his feet and Kirk turned for Uhura, just as energy encircled her and transported her off the Enterprise.

The darkness of the Vengeance's hull came into focus as Uhura found herself on the bridge with Khan.

"Uhura!" Kirk's voiced filled the room and she saw her crew mates on the view screen.

"You will beam the Lieutenant back immediately." Spock raised his voice to him.

Uhura stood, unable to think, unable to do anything. She could not help the Enterprise now and Khan was going to murder her family.

Thousands of thoughts rushed through her head, she has to do something!

Khan sat back in his chair and briefly smiled at Uhura before smirking back at the others.

"Goodbye Captain, Spock." He cocked his head and nodded, before shutting off the channel and ending communication with the Enterprise.


	20. Chapter 20

Uhura watched Khan anxiously as he closed the channel with the Enterprise, rose to his feet and strode over to a comm.

His teeth were bared like an animal as he worked fast, entering codes and flicking switches, lost in a trance.

There were several bodies of crewmen littering the floor, and she recognised one, through the pool of blood and gore, to be the Admiral.

Uhura winced at the gruesome sight and caught her breath. Unable to let Khan continue, she walked toward him. She had to do something, intervene, calm him. The wild look in his eye captivated his expression as his need for vengeance consumed him.

But what did he have left to avenge? He had his crew back and he had killed the Admiral. This was mere blood lust and cruelty.

"Khan," she said calmly as she stood next to him. He was not listening, "Khan!"

She shouted at him, placing her hands on his arm. His head shot up from the comm, expression savage and eyes splintering through hers; his fringe ruggedly falling in his face and breathing harsh.

Uhura remained as calm as she could, but some fear found its way into her expression.

"Look at me." She said, moving her dainty frame to get between him and the comm. He stepped away from the switches, a feral look still in his eyes. She gently held his face in her hands.

"Look at me. I'm here, please." Her voice trembled slightly. Khan closed his eyes, breathing still heavy and clenched his fists.

"You must let me finish this." He growled without opening his eyes.

"It's already over, Khan."

His eyes shot open, staring into her. She shuffled, uneasy, and moved her hands to his shoulders.

"There is nothing left." She began, "You have your crew back and you've killed the Admiral. You don't need to destroy the Enterprise! Please." She pleaded with him.

"You do not understand," he rumbled, "Their loyalty to you and to Starfleet is too strong, so by leaving them alive, they will ultimately get in my way."

He moved her aside, not aggressively, but with a force that suggested he could not be reasoned with.

"If you kill my family I will never forgive you." She snapped at him, thinking quickly. He paused over the comm. "You have been fighting for your family!" She stressed, "Crashing the world around because the Admiral may have harmed them; and now you're prepared to take someone else's!?"

She stood, unwavering, trying to control her anger. Khan slowly turned around and met her gaze, tears pooled in his eyes.

"I did not want you to have a choice." His tone was unsteady.

"A choice?" Uhura shook her head, confused.

"If your crew were dead and you were aboard this ship, then you would have had no choice but to become a part of my family." His eyes glistened, "With the Enterprise out there, I will always have competition for your affections."

She suddenly did not know what to say. He was right, they both knew he was, but something in Uhura was no longer the same. She loved the Enterprise and all of the people who inhabited it, but strangely, in a way she could not explain, she loved Khan too.

This man had abruptly arrived in her life. He had challenged her and opened up parts of herself she never knew existed. He had been dangerous and a pain in the ass with his mind games, yet so passionate and unfaltering with her. Now she could not picture a day without him.

She did not want to have to choose between him and the Enterprise.

"How long have you been planning all this?" She asked him quietly, not breaking eye contact.

Khan blinked and the tears rolled down his cheeks,

"I planned all along to get my family and my ship back, but it wasn't until recently that I included you in my ideas." He informed her.

"I admit to you," he continued, "In the beginning I was trying to manipulate you, to infiltrate your mind in case you had any useful information; but I did not expect you to fight back, to have such intellect and to be so strong against me." He studied her where she stood,

"I did not expect to feel about you as I do now, Nyota."

Uhura sighed and shuffled on the spot, fighting to keep her own tears at bay.

"Then why didn't you just talk to me? Ask me if I wanted to go with you?" She asked.

"Because I was afraid of what the answer might have been." He replied instantly, "And if it had not been what I wanted to hear, you would have known too much about my true intentions, and might have informed your Captain."

He observed her, his expression disheartened. She breathed and shook her head.

"You think of everything don't you?" She asked rhetorically as she stepped towards him. She studied his form, eyes drifting over his shoulders and torso and softly touched his chest.

"I wish things had been different." She whispered, tears starting to block her vision. She could feel his heart beating under her hand. "I wish I could have known you before all of this, before you were in this mess." She looked up at him through her tears and he encircled her in his arms.

"I can't be with you here, not now." She continued, "If I stay here and we run, then you will still be a fugitive and I will be your assumed hostage."

Khan sighed and rested his forehead against hers, closing his eyes again.

"You have to return me to the Enterprise." She told him, her voice weak but resolute. Khan moved to meet her gaze again, looking for an explanation.

"It's the only way to give us a chance." She said, "If we follow Kirk's plan and get back to Earth, we can stand with you, telling the rest of Starfleet of the Admirals intentions and how he used you." She fought for him, trying to look for another way.

"That will not excuse my other crimes, Nyota." He said, "If I face a federation court, I will not walk away a free man."

Uhura felt at a complete loss. She did not know what to do because in reality, no matter what they did, Khan was always going to be a fugitive.

She had two choices; either stay with Khan aboard the Vengeance, become a runaway and eventually be hunted down by the federation, or return to the Enterprise and to Starfleet, where she would undoubtedly loose Khan forever.


	21. Chapter 21

The Enterprise sat expectantly out in space ahead of them. It looked small and fragile with visible exterior damage.

Uhura thought as she stared at it from Khan's embrace. The crew would be anxious and confused. Kirk would be cursing loudly and pacing the deck as Spock recited every prime directive and protocol that could be applied to their situation, as they tried to figure out what was going on.

She closed her eyes, thinking about her situation. She had to be real here; staying with Khan, on the run, could not be an option. No matter how difficult it would be to say goodbye, she wouldn't be able to justify throwing away everything she had worked for in Starfleet.

Being alone may be the only way to give Khan a chance to get away, to get a head start on the federation, to survive. She had to be logical and go back to the Enterprise.

Uhura moved to look up at him. Khan's eyes searched hers as she studied his face, her lips began to tremble and tears prickled in her eyes, knowing this was probably going to be the last time she ever saw him.

"I have to go back to the Enterprise, to Starfleet." She whispered her decision. Khan's expression fell and he held her tighter. "If Kirk's plan won't work and the federation will still convict you, or even kill you, then this is the only way to give you a chance to survive." Tears rolled down her cheeks.

"But I cannot come with you. If I do, they will only hunt us down faster. You must be alone."

Khan took a breath and eventually nodded. He understood and knew that she was right.

More tears rolled down her cheeks at his acknowledgment, finalising the plan and beginning their goodbye.

Khan's eyes were glassy,

"I will see you again." He said assuredly through tears, his voice quiet and expression wavering.

He kissed her longingly and she returned it, hating every second that escaped them.

An alert from a comm cracked through the silence and abruptly broke their kiss.

Khan walked over and examined it, face growing concerned. He suddenly, looked up. Uhura followed his gaze.

Out of the view screen, blue sparkles of warp appeared around the Enterprise as four small, unmarked ships flashed into focus and surrounded it.

They were sleek and black, each one about half the size of the Enterprise, but they were heavily armed. Phaser turrets and machines on pivots extended out from the crafts in unison. They were fearsome looking weapons, like nothing Uhura had ever seen before, and they all pointed at the Enterprise.

She glanced over at Khan before staring out into space again, instantly sobering up from her sadness.

"What's going on?" She asked him with urgency, walking towards the screen, "What are they? What are they doing? Khan!?"

Khan busily studied the comms in front of him as the Vengeance scanned and processed information on the little crafts.

"The designs," he mumbled to himself as he analysed the incoming results, "I recognise them, they're-"

He was cut off by a scream from Uhura.

The ships had open fired on the Enterprise. The blackness of space was filled with colour, greens, blues and reds as phasers blasted her home ship.

"Do something!" Uhura screamed, unable to tear her eyes from the sight before her.

"I can't!" Khan shouted back. She was about to protest when the battle ended.

A few final shots from the mysterious ships were fired and the Enterprise couldn't hold out any longer.

The federation ship crumbled and blew up, engines first, followed by chunks of the hull.

Uhura stood, fingertips breaking as they dug into the comm in front of her, helpless. She couldn't speak, or breathe.

The black ships closed up their weapons and warped. Disappearing as quickly as they arrived, leaving nothing but debris and wreckage floating in space around them.

Uhura turned slowly to face Khan.

"Why didn't you do something?" She asked, anger rising in her voice. "I've seen this ships weapons. Why didn't you do something?"

"I couldn't." He said, leaning on the comm, "They were federation ships, the same style as this one, only a different class. My design..." He trailed off gritting his teeth.

"What do you mean, 'your design'?" She asked him bitterly.

"They were an early prototype I designed for Marcus before the Vengeance. Trial war crafts, capable of taking out anything, even this ship if they had wanted too. Death ships."

"Death ships?" She repeated, disbelievingly.

"I did not know he made more, or even kept the designs..." Khan spoke to himself and stared out into the distance, thinking.

Uhura fought new tears.

"Why did they come? And why didn't they attack us?" She asked quietly.

"I do not know." Khan shook his head. "If they were from Earth then they probably had an order to be ready some time ago from the Admiral, stating that he would be returning with the Enterprise, and me." He began, "But as he has not, they have come out to him." He paused.

"They obviously believed that the Admiral was still alive, aboard this ship and in need of back up, and that I was on the Enterprise with your disobedient Captain, thus making that ship the target."

Uhura didn't know how to respond. Khan changing the game and killing Marcus had caused a chain reaction, leading to her ship and her family being destroyed.

"You knew what they were. So why didn't you stop them? Fire on them?" She asked through gritted teeth.

"I couldn't." He repeated, "There wasn't any time. The phasers would have blocked transmission signals and attacking would have alerted them to a problem, making both ships targets."

Angry tears rolled down her cheeks. Why did he have to be right? She stared at him as he worked at the comm again.

"Wait." He said, looking up to the view screen and pressing buttons to magnify the image of space.

Uhura wiped her eyes and peered through the debris, almost hoping to see those little black ships return and take out this one.

"Escape pods." He said, refocusing the screen, "They're moving."

Some relief washed over her and a small smile spread across her face as she watched a cluster of pods navigating their way through the debris.

"They got out!" She exclaimed, feeling suddenly joyous at the survival of her family.

"Some of them, yes." He reminded her.

From here, they had no way of telling who were in the pods.

Uhura felt her heart sink, but determined to be optimistic, she ignored Khans words.

Khan reset the screen and walked across the deck to his chair.

"What do we do now?" She asked him.

"We move." He said, looking up at her, "They will realise what's going on soon enough, so we must get ahead of them."

In light of the circumstances, Uhura suddenly felt stranded and very far from home. The choice to stay with Khan had been made for her. At least for now.


	22. Chapter 22

**Hello lovely people! Sorry for a late update! It's been so hot here that my writing brain can't function for very long without melting. I hope you are all well and are avoiding the heat wherever you are! Here is the next chapter, and it saddens me to say that the story is coming to its end! I only have a few more chapters left to write but I am possibly thinking of a sequel if people would be interested. Enjoy! :-)**

Khan carefully navigated the Vengeance through the field of debris, keeping an eye on the escape pods.

Uhura sat at the communication comm, temporarily lost in thought.

Here she was, in the place her heart had wanted her to be, but it didn't feel right. Not now knowing that the Enterprise was destroyed, and that so many of her crew and friends may not have made it out alive.

She looked up at Khan who was watching her, he could no doubt see worry in her face.

A transmission sprung up on the comm, jolting her attention back to reality. The details processed on the screen;

ENT ESCAPE PD 4

Without a second thought, Uhura opened the channel.

"Khan!" The angry but familiar voice of Captain Kirk spoke out, "What the hell is going on and where is Lieutenant Uhura!?"

"I'm here, Captain." Uhura replied, relieved to hear his voice.

"You're alive!" Kirk exclaimed, "That criminal didn't kill you?"

Khan intervened,

"I never said I was going to kill the Lieutenant, you just assumed that I would." He said.

"Then why did you take her?" Kirk asked. Uhura heard mumbling voices in the background of the pod.

"That is not important, don't you think you have bigger problems at the moment, Captain?" Khan asked, avoiding the subject to Uhura's relief. Now was not the best time to be trying to explain her relationship with a fugitive to the Captain.

"Yes. I'd say we do." Kirk said accusingly, his tone was bitter.

He paused, and a palpable tension accompanied it as they waited for the Captain to continue, she could picture the expression on his face, silently thinking of everything, brow furrowed.

"Around seventy personnel made it out alive." Kirk stated angrily, "Sixteen pods. Fifteen of them are going back to earth, but one is requesting permission to dock."

Khan thought for a moment, staring into nothing and Uhura watched him, anxiously. He had to accept. He looked over to her, taking note of her expression and the need to see that at least some of her family were safe.

"Who else is with you?" He asked.

"Bones, Sulu, Scotty and Spock." Kirk replied.

Khan nodded to Uhura and her fingers automatically worked to grant them access.

"Alright." He rumbled.

Uhura followed Khan through the sleek dark ship as they headed for the docking bay. The Vengeance seemed even bigger on the inside than the outside as they walked along the winding corridors and travelled down the levels of the craft.

She stood with Khan as the bashed up Enterprise escape pod landed with a shudder.

Kirk emerged first, followed by the others who took in the expansive sight of the bay, oblivious to the Captain who proceeded to charge at Khan.

Kirk's fist smashed into Khan's face with enough force to knock him off his feet, and he continued to repeatedly punch the fugitive as he held him down.

Uhura jumped back,

"Jim, what are you doing!?" She screamed at him, he ignored her and methodically attacked Khan.

"This is for kidnapping Uhura, this is for setting those damn warbirds on us, this is for getting my ship destroyed and this is for killing my entire family!" Kirk yelled, overcome with rage.

Sulu, Spock, Bones and Scotty all watched with shock and started to intervene.

"Jim that's enough!" Bones shouted as he approached him with Spock.

Before anyone could do anything, Khan took care the Captain himself. He got to his feet and grabbed Kirk by the throat in the process.

Amazingly, Kirk had actually caused Khan some damage; he had a cut across his cheek that was bleeding.

Khan held him up with one hand, tightening his grip on his oesophagus as Kirk angrily threw his fists and spluttered for air.

He glared up at him through gritted teeth, hand contorted around his neck and increasing the pressure, Kirk gradually changing colour and wheezing. He would kill him.

"Khan stop!" Uhura blurted out and moved closer to him, yet he was lost in a trance again, "Khan, you'll kill him!" She yelled at him.

Khan released his grip and the Captain fell to the ground in a heap, coughing and gasping.

He looked to Uhura, seeing concern in her eyes and to the others who seemed puzzled by their Captains sudden attack. He sharply kicked Kirk in the stomach before leaving the bay, avoiding the others eyes.

Kirk writhed around on the floor. McCoy and Spock got him to his feet.

"What the hell was that for?" McCoy asked him, but Kirk could not find the breath to reply. He steadily straightened himself up and looked at Uhura. Soon all eyes were on her, analysing her, trying to figure out how she was still alive.

Spock clenched his jaw and his fists, trying desperately not to speak his mind. Uhura blinked, avoiding his eyes and spoke out,

"The bridge is this way," she pointed in the direction Khan had gone in, "but I don't know where the medical bay is so Kirk, you're gonna have to suck it up."

He winced and nodded leaning on Bones for support as she lead them out of the bay.

On the bridge, Khan sat in his chair, his cut had stopped bleeding and was beginning to heal. Blue sparkles of warp speed stretched out beyond the view screen.

Bones dumped Kirk in the nearest chair and examined him as best he could without any equipment.

Uhura glanced at her family before walking over to Khan.

"Where are we going?" She asked softly, looking out on the blue.

"Somewhere moderately safe, for now." He replied, annoyance in his voice and rose to his feet, brushing past her as he stepped toward Kirk.

Kirk eyed him,

"Why did you set those warbirds on my ship?" He rasped.

"I did not." Khan replied. Kirk shook his head and smirked,

"There's no use lying now." He accused. Khan rolled his eyes.

"They were federation ships, similar to this one." He explained, "Most likely under order from Admiral Marcus. Their sudden presence was as much a surprise to me as it was to you."

Kirk squinted at him, still doubtful.

"You know I could have set the Vengeance to fire on you single-handedly if I wanted to destroy you, why would I need back up?" He paused, "They were from Earth and probably with the belief I was aboard your ship. Though I wouldn't doubt that the Admiral wanted you dead too; two birds with one stone." He glowered at the Captain.

"Most of my crew are dead because of you!" Kirk spat, "I have seventy crew members left!"

"And I have seventy-two." Khan replied. "Perhaps we have more in common than you think."

A silence fell between them, Kirk got to his feet.

"No." He refused to agree, "We have nothing in common!"

Khan raised an eyebrow, watching as the Captain started to pace.

"Then perhaps you could clarify your reasons for coming here, Captain?"

Kirk stared at him, silent for a moment, eyes drifting over to Uhura.

"To kick your ass, and get my Lieutenant back."


	23. Chapter 23

The Vengeance smoothly dropped out of warp in a different part of space.

Khan stood next to his chair, verifying their location and the others watched him from the right side of the room, leaving Uhura standing between them.

The attention was momentarily on the view screen.

"Where are we?" Kirk asked, bitterly.

"Titan. It will be safe here while we talk." Khan rumbled, turning to face the Captain.

"What is there to talk about?" Kirk scoffed, "We are leaving this ship right now, with Uhura. Although," he paused, "If you are prepared to talk, maybe you can tell me why you took her in the first place?" He asked, angrily.

Khan held his stare before looking to Uhura, eyes studying her.

"Because I know great intelligence when I see it." He moved his gaze back to Kirk, "Uhura deserves recognition for her intellect, and appreciation she was not getting on the Enterprise." He paused, "She could be so much more under my command."

"Of course we appreciate her!" Kirk spat back, striding towards him, "She is the best, that's why she's part of _my_ family!"

Uhura exhaled sharply and closed her eyes. Sick of them arguing about her.

"This is excruciating!" She exclaimed, rubbing her temples and opening her eyes, darting her gaze between Kirk and Khan.

"Can you please not talk about me as if I wasn't in the room!?"

Khan slowly looked at her and Kirk glanced at the floor and swallowed, awkwardly.

"I'm sorry." The Captain said quietly.

"Yes." Khan agreed with him, momentarily silent.

Khan's gaze rested upon hers and she studied his intense blue eyes. She could see him fighting with his affections and realising that his reasoning wasn't going to be enough to keep Uhura with him on the Vengeance.

She didn't say anything, there was nothing she could say, so she merely let her eyes drift down to his lips, his neck, and to his torso before letting her gaze fall to the floor.

Neither of them realised that the Captain and the others had been watching their silent conversation.

Kirks eyes narrowed as he judged them, slowly piecing their relationship together.

"Wait," he said, thinking, eying them both, "No..." He whispered.

Uhura looked at Kirk and noticed the puzzled gazes of the others behind him who hadn't caught up yet, except for Spock, who stood fists clenched, staring straight at Khan.

"You two?" The Captain continued, bemused. They both looked at him; Khan's expression his perfected, unyielding exterior and Uhura trying desperately to think of what to say.

"I- is this why you and Spock broke up?" He addressed her whilst pointing behind him at his first officer.

"No, it wasn't, that was diff-" she replied quickly before cutting herself off, not wanting to delve into details and feeling eyes with preconceived judgements staring at her.

She took a breath and straightened her posture.

"So..?" Kirk pried.

"'So?' what, Captain?" Khan rumbled, "There is nothing to explain to you." He paused and looked at Uhura. "I love Nyota."

Before Kirk, any of the others, or even Uhura for that matter, could register what Khan had just said, Spock flew at the fugitive from behind the Captain.

He grabbed Khan by the throat and crashed him down onto a comm.

"You do not love Nyota, you are merely using her for your own personal gain." Spock growled, tightening his grip. "Love implies caring for another, yet you only care for yourself!"

"Do those words sound familiar to you, Spock?" Khan choked out from under his hold, taunting him.

Outraged, Spock threw him across the room, sending him crashing down to the floor in front of the view screen.

As Khan struggled on the floor, Spock began towards him again.

Uhura swiftly dashed over to Khan, getting between the fight just before Spock reached him.

"Stop it!" She screamed, "Both of you! Stop it!"

Spock stood inches away from her, staring straight past her at the criminal who rose to his feet, dusting himself off.

Uhura couldn't continue as she watched them both snarling at each other, prepared to pounce again. Her mind ached, overwhelmed by the fighting.

"I can't-" Her hands flew to her forehead and she fought back tears, determined not to crumble, "I can't deal with all this right now!" She said as she looked about her crew members.

She briskly walked away, through the harrowingly aggressive silence and left the bridge, hoping they wouldn't all kill each other before she had time to think.

Uhura travelled up a floor and wondered the dim corridors, passing doors that looked like quarters; intermittently placed with key codes beside them.

She eventually found the recreation lounge where she curled up on a large black leather sofa and stared into nothing as she thought.

She scolded herself for feeling saddened about the reaction from her family. What did she expect? For them to say they were perfectly fine for her to have a relationship with criminal?

The choice had reared its ugly head again and now stood squarely before her. She tucked her knees up to her chest at the thought of the monster.

The door swished open and Mr. Scott carefully approached her.

"Hello." He said, almost unsure.

"Hey." She replied, and smiled weakly at him. He gestured at the cushion next to her on the sofa and she nodded, letting him sit by her.

"I just came to see if you were okay, and that you hadn't flushed yourself out of an airlock."

Uhura smiled,

"Uhh, yeah, I'm fine. Thanks." She said.

"They're all worried about you now." He told her. She rolled her eyes, "Not that they sent me to check up on you!" He quickly added,

"Kirk, Spock and Khan were arguing about who should come and find you but then Bones suggested that you might not really want to see any of their bleeping faces, so I offered to go."

She nodded,

"Hmm; not that you're checking up on me."

"No, absolutely not."

Uhura laughed softly. Silence fell between them.

"So, you've got yourself into a bit of a tricky situation here, haven't you lassy?"

She sighed and rubbed the back of her neck.

"Y'know, I can't say I'm an expert on love, or anything like that, but I know a thing or two about tricky situations." He began, "You can't spare everyone all of the time, and you shouldn't try to, because you'll end up killing yourself!" He paused,

"Have clarity in your mind, but follow what your gut tells you. If in your heart of hearts something feels right; then go with it! Trust your instinct, and yourself. You'll know what you really need to do."

Uhura thought through his words.

"Anyway," he said after a pause, "I'll leave y'alone again, so long as you're alright?"

She nodded in response and gave him a quick hug,

"Thank you."

Scotty shuffled as he got up.

"No problem." He smiled bashfully, before leaving the room again.

Time escaped her as she sat alone, continuously reaching the same verdict as she played through her options with her new found advice.

She lugged herself off the sofa and back through the ship, thoughts settled in her mind.

The bridge doors opened and she stepped in, eyes immediately falling upon her and conversation stopping.

She looked about the expectant faces and took a deep breath.

"I've thought things through," She stated, confidently, "And I've come to a decision."


	24. Chapter 24

**Here we go guys, the final chapter! *mass sobbing* I really did cry a bit when I had finished. It's been so much fun to write and you readers are AMAZING and I LOVE YOU ALL! Over 30,000 reads! Wow wow wow!  
I can happily confirm that there WILL be a sequel! Not sure when, as I am thinking of writing some other stuff, but keep your eyes open and follow me (if you haven't already) so you know when it arrives. :-)  
Much love to you, dear readers, and enjoy! :-)**

Expectant faces watched Uhura. The air began to thicken with impatience yet no one dared to rush her, not even Kirk who still looked highly strung.

Spock couldn't look at her, instead he stared at the floor by her feet, standing as far away from Khan as he could.

Uhura pressed her lips together and closed her eyes for a moment, hating being in this position.

Opening her eyes again, she finally spoke out.

"I'll return to Earth with you, to Starfleet." She told them quietly.

Spock's head shot up, eyes finding her face as Khan's expression fell, darkened and dejected.

His eyes now found the floor and his body language became withdrawn.

Uhura clenched her teeth, desperately waiting for someone to say something and not wanting to cry.

Kirk folded his arms and nodded.

"Okay." He said. "Good."

The Captain looked about the others, reluctant to say anything else. He refrained his usual attitude for the sake of Uhura's expression. Jim could be thoughtless at times, but he knew when someone had been pushed too far.

Khan said nothing, but his eyes had found hers again. They looked greyed and abandoned, his focus wavering as he stayed composed.

"Right, well," Kirk said cautiously through the silence, starting to walk forward. "We'd better get moving."

The others began picking themselves up, carefully moving and watching Khan and Uhura as they did.

Hesitation suddenly pulsed through her.

"Wait!" She blurted out, stopping the room once more. Kirk stood just before her, she looked at him pleadingly and across to Khan, unsure of how to convey what was on her mind.

Luckily, the Captain seemed to understand. He observed the space between her and Khan.

"One hours preparation." He said after a moment, "We need to get a craft ready and some supplies anyway."

The Captain left the deck. The others shuffled about expecting to follow, when Khan rose to his feet, passed Uhura and strode out of the room without a word.

Silent glances were exchanged between her family, yet Uhura did not stay to reassure them. She skipped off the deck and immediately turned right, following after Khan.

Khan walked fast along the corridors of his ship. Uhura had to run to catch up with him.

"Khan?" She called after him and as she approached him. "Khan!"

He did not stop walking, nor did he acknowledge her presence. His stare was fixed ahead and eyes were cold. The lift door before them swiftly opened and he stepped inside, slowly turning around and finally facing her.

"Khan please," she said, tears pooling in her eyes, "Let me explain, talk to me."

He still said nothing, he gently took her wrists, making her step forward into the lift and into his arms as the doors shut behind her.

His arms encircled her and she hugged herself into him, instinctively moving her hands to the back of his neck, playing with his hair.

Khan moved a hand and briefly focused on the buttons on the panel, selecting a number.

The lift instantly set off and he turned his attention back to her, replacing his hand on her body and gazed into her eyes, her mind.

"I have no intention of talking." He purred, expression still somewhat disheartened yet there was something else creeping in behind it.

He kissed her with passion that was different from before. Their kisses had always been fuelled with fire, but this was more.

The lift doors reopened and Uhura no longer cared for her surroundings. Refusing to let him go or break away, the Lieutenant wrapped her legs around Khan and he easily picked her up.

She buried her face in his neck, kissing him as he carried her to a door and entered the unlock code.

The room was dim and quiet, a large living quarter that provided the perfect temporary sanctuary.

Time was no longer a factor to them. She let herself get slowly lost with him, in his eyes and his touch. She memorised each caress and the placements of his fingertips, the look and feel of his pale, soft skin and strength and safety of his body against hers.

Sinking into the bed covers, she savoured every second with Khan. Forgetting about the rest of the world and the mess he was in. She focused on expressing all of her love to him, as neither of them could say when, or if, they would ever get another chance to.

Uhura prayed to herself as he took her higher and higher, prayed that this would not be their last time together, that they would see each other again somehow. No one ignited the same sparks within her like Khan did, physically, mentally and emotionally, and she could not bare the thought of losing him forever.

Bodies tensing, she knew the end was all to near. Unfaltering intensity and moans of audible pleasure masked the sadness in their love. She relished each wave taking them both closer to the edge, lips crashing against lips, against skin. Fingernails and teeth marking and blemishing to be remembered, and eventually, reaching earth-shattering climaxes.

They sat up together, bodies entangled and lips lazily exchanging and planting kisses on each other.

Khan broke away and gazed into the darkness of Uhura's eyes.

"I assume your decision was made from our original plan? Before the Enterprise was destroyed?" He asked her, his tone deep and strong.

"Yes." She replied, "No matter how much either of us hate it; you being alone will give you the best chance at surviving."

She sighed, tears creeping into her eyes and touched his face.

"I thought of every other scenario I could, but in my heart, I know they won't work. At least if I go back to Starfleet, I can try to make sure we stall the federation as much as possible, to give you a head start."

A tear rolled down her cheek, hating the realisation of leaving him. He brushed it away with his thumb.

She smiled weakly at him, thinking.

"Earlier, you said you love me?" She asked.

"Yes." Khan replied, without hesitation, "I do."

"I love you, too." She said, still smiling, and he returned it.

"We will see each other again. I assure you."

"Yes. I know we will." She replied, and actually felt some certainty in it.

Eventually they had to release from their tangled embrace when an alert came through the ships computer, signalling the end of their time together.

They got dressed, painfully slowly and helped each other, stealing last glances and brushes of fingers on skin.

Uhura felt her chest tighten at returning back to reality. The foggy haze of their love was clearing from the room and her mind, bringing the cold truth back into focus.

They walked hand-in-hand in silence down to the docking bay.

Uhura caught her breath as they approached the doors and squeezed Khan's hand, stopping him just before.

She turned to face him, immediately wrapping her arms around him and kissing him longingly, fighting the tears.

She reluctantly broke away and focused on his intense eyes for the last time. They were glassy as he too fought tears.

"Thank you." She said as he held her tightly in their final embrace.

"For what?" He asked her quietly.

"Everything." She replied, "Everything you have shown me and taught me about myself."

"I love you." He smiled.

"I love you, too." She returned, they moved apart, hands still straying together, "Be safe."

Khan nodded.

"'Till we meet again." He hummed.

With a final look at his statuesque figure and the sensations of his touch still lingering on her skin, she released his hands. Feeling Khan's eyes watching her for the last time, she moved and stood squarely to the docking bay doors. She slowly stepped through them as they opened, returning to her other life, at least for now.


End file.
